If there’s one thing Shirley Miller has learned, it’s that life is a “contact” sport.

A native of Dallas, Texas, Shirley graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1985 with a BA in Liberal Arts (Major in History, Minor in Accounting). Following graduation, she went back to Dallas and worked for two years maintaining general ledgers and managing a family’s broad range of investments and real estate assets.

Her love of Austin drew her back for two years of non-degree course work in Graphic Design, Art and Art History at UT. A friend she met while serving in a volunteer position introduced her to an Executive Association Management firm where she worked as a graphic designer while attending art classes at UT. A reference from a graphic design professor led her to work as an account executive for a well-known design firm in Austin where she performed turnkey project production from job cost projection, client presentation to the design process and delivery of printed materials. A blind date turned into a job offer as an account executive and designer for an automotive advertising firm based in Austin that served 16 Ford dealerships in Texas, California, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Five years later, the Ford dealership in Austin hired her as their in house director of advertising, marketing and PR for where she remained for seven years. She was a one-person department responsible for all aspects of advertising across all dealership departments from budgeting, media buying for TV, radio and print, through the design and delivery of the final creative product. She concepted creative, wrote copy, oversaw radio and TV commercial production, designed POP campaigns and signage, managed PR opportunities and was responsible for the initiative to improve employee satisfaction.

Following a health scare, Shirley took a break from advertising and worked for the Austin Ford dealer principal as executive director for his non-profit prison ministry serving a male maximum security prison in deep south Texas. She wrote and submitted grants, served as treasurer, administered the college scholarship program and coordinated volunteers for the Family Resource Center adjacent to the prison. Five months later, she continued helping the non-profit, but a friend from her past connected Shirley back a job opening to the field of advertising, doing contract work for a family of hospitals with facilities in Austin and the surrounding communities. She created print materials and shot and produced videos of groundbreakings, special fundraising events and for the hospital’s system-wide employee giving campaign.

Shirley was called back into full time work in 2006 when the principal of the Austin Ford dealer died suddenly at the age of 50, and her familiarity with his family and the dealership made her a perfect fit. She started forensic accounting work on his Estate, and continues today to manage the family’s wide range of investments, serving as bookkeeper and facilitator between their accountant, attorney, insurance and travel providers. Two months after starting work on the Estate, Shirley was asked by a close friend of the deceased to perform the same kind of work their family as well. She continues today managing the diverse range of needs for both families.

All work and no play makes for a really dull life!! Since the past 15 years of her work have been heavy on math, structure, systems and keeping two fully loaded freight trains running smoothly on parallel tracks, Shirley has taken every opportunity that a walk in the park or travel with friends and family have provided to pull out her camera and take pictures. As with her occupation, she is drawn to the details. She looks for the beauty in the seemingly ordinary, and takes extreme closeup shots. When people see her photographs, they often ask “what is that??” While the world shut down in 2020, and after the workload of the day was behind her, Shirley spent time critically reviewing her photographs and completely transformed them into bold, detailed patterns. While doing research on how to pursue licensing opportunities for her new body of work, a phone conversation with a complete stranger introduced her to the brilliant innovators at Western Sensibility. She loves her “day job”, but Shirley is extremely grateful for this newest contact, the textile printing collaboration opportunity it has produced, and this much needed creative presence that brings balance to her life.