By Eric Baxter
Editor

Ross Miller, 51, said he sees cities a little different from most people. Rather than concrete sidewalks, paved streets and rising buildings, Miller said he sees the urban landscape in terms as blank canvas, an opportunity to create.

Ross Miller’s “BoogieLights” hangs above the intersection of Hanover and Elm Street. Miller said he wanted to surprise and delight people with the installation.

“What you see in the natural world is incredible,” said Miller. “You see the frost build up on trees, flowers poking through the snow, and ice-covered streams creating whirlpools of leaves. These are all surprises in the natural environment.

“In an urban environment, there are a lot of things we run into that surprise us that are not so good. When I make something (in an urban environment), I want it to be uplifting, joyful and challenging.”

In December, Miller’s philosophy was embodied in “BoogieLights,” a playful series of figures created from strings of colored lights, arching above the intersection of Hanover and Elm Street.

“It’s on display for the darkest time of the year. Maybe it will remind people they need to have fun, to go dancing. Lights have always been a celebration of peoples’ time on Earth,” he said.

The piece was a collaborative effort between Intown Manchester and Miller. It was funded with money from the city’s Capital Improvement Projects fund. Intown Manchester executive director Stephanie Lewry said the project would not have moved forward without Citizen’s Bank and Cameron Real Estate, which gave permission to anchor the artwork on their respective walls and soar above the street.

“It’s an art installation, but not in a traditional public art way,” said Lewry. “I look at art as a fun and enticing way to get people to come down to the downtown.”

The appeal of the piece – colored lights seeming to dance against a dark sky – is what first drew Lewry to Miller’s artwork.

“I was doing a little comparative shopping, so to speak, and I happened to be in Boston. I saw these unique banners, and at night they looked like they were floating in mid-air. I could envision the way we could use such a banner in Manchester,” she said.

Eventually she tracked down Miller’s name and number and contacted him.

Miller made a pilgrimage to the city, looking to learn more about Manchester. Lewry said they drove all around the downtown area, learning about the history and people.

Indeed, the first few designs for Manchester’s piece saw Miller creating cables of crisscrossing light above Elm Street, symbolic of the Merrimack River and the textile industry.

“I like to look at a specific space and turn up the volume on its history. That acts as a moment of beauty and surprise for people,” said Miller.

However, technical considerations and state laws prevented the city from allowing that first design, but the idea of beauty and surprise, and embodying the city’s nature, remained.

Miller and Lewry turned to one of his earlier designs, giant lit figures cavorting over Harvard Square in Cambridge.

“(In addition to working off textile themes) we wanted to work diversity into the design,” said Lewry. “They are both strong ties for the city, and Manchester’s diversity is growing by leaps and bounds. So doing the theme of the people, and the many colors of lights within the figures, is another way to celebrate diversity as well.

For Miller, the installation has other appeals, including its transitory nature.

“This is a recurring temporary piece. This will come out in the winter, as the flowers come back in the spring,” he said.

Miller’s public art – he considers himself to be a public artist – focuses on the use of water and light. The installations also seem to exist on a number of levels ranging from what is seen, to what is experienced. One of his less obvious works is a series of etchings in the paving stones around Fanueil Hall in Boston. The work outlines original homes and the shoreline of that section of city. There is little interpretation, leaving a viewer to puzzle out the meaning, which is easy, and delve into the history of the space from an immediate perspective. If the area were suddenly shot back to etchings’ time much of Government Center would be under water.

His more obvious sculptures, using light and water, grace the skies above Cambridge and Boston and help cool summer days in Maine, as well as Mission Hill in Massachusetts.

“Water and light are transitory, dynamic, changing. I’ve always been interested in using the simplest way to make the largest effect. Lights hanging over the street, swaying in the wind, it’s very delicate. It’s like the stars came down from the sky. It’s joyful,” he said. Lewry agreed.

“People didn’t know what to expect, but we’ve heard nothing but positive comments. It’s just out there for fun. Banners are works of art, and they come at you in an unexpected way,” she said.

While the immediacy of the installation catches people unaware, Miller said his work will hopefully have far-reaching effects. “Public art connects us with a future we haven’t quite got to yet,” Miller said. It’s a gift for people we don’t know, or don’t know yet. In a way, it’s showing respect for a place and a community.”