Easygoing tween Miller Kea has an eye for design and a love of animals
By Anna-Rhesa Versola | Photography by John Michael Simpson
Miller Kea, 12, is a keen observer who absorbs information by watching her energetic mom, Jennings Brody, run five different businesses, including Parker and Otis, a cafe and retail shop, and Parker Paper Co., a stationery store, at American Tobacco Campus.
“Like a lot of shopkeep kids, she has to come to work with me a lot,” Jennings says. “She would sit at my desk and draw. About two years ago, I came around the corner, and she had done this drawing, and it was done in a way that there’s no way I would have been able to. … I think she gets embarrassed, because I’m always like, ‘Look at this drawing. It’s so amazing.’ And I think she doesn’t realize how good they are. People want to buy T-shirts with drawings she drew when she was 10 years old. That blows my mind.”
Jennings, who has a background in art history and political science, says her friend Emily Wallace, a local author and illustrator, inspired Miller to draw food. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of an odd thing to draw. Maybe I’ll draw.’ And then I drew,” Miller says. “I think it was the first time I went to her house and art studio. I was 7, maybe 6.” Miller remembers her earliest scribblings in preschool were of dinosaurs. She entered sixth grade at Carolina Friends School this fall. Her favorite classes are in art and science. Cats are her favorite subject to sketch.
Jennings happily shares her enthusiasm for Miller’s artwork with local friends and fellow restaurateurs – pizza drawings for Mike Hacker and Becky Cascio, owners of Pie Pushers, and sandwiches for Kelli Cotter, owner of Toast. Miller’s drawing of a standing pig dressed as a chef is printed on the back of shirts worn by the staff at Vin Rouge. Inside Parker and Otis, Miller’s illustrations can be found in a rack of shirts screenprinted by The Merch and features drawings of a hat-wearing, whiskered shrimp drinking a cocktail; a happy ham; and a candied cone of Astro Pop. Miller enjoys wearing her personal favorite – a green tee with her rendition of a box of Junior Mints. Customers and staff can fill out book review notes that feature two orange meerkats sharing a novel. The glass refrigerator in the cafe displays Miller’s color pencil drawings of its daily offerings, like chicken salad with mixed greens or tubs of pimento cheese, and outlined letters spelling out C-A-N-D-Y points out the obvious wall of packaged chocolates and confections.
Yet, Miller’s love of animals drives her ambition to become a zoologist or herpetologist. “I don’t think I want to be an artist when I grow up,” she says. “My favorite animals are birds, cats and basically any type of reptile or amphibian. I just think they’re all really cute in their own weird little way, even if they don’t look like it on the outside. Also, unlike a lot of animals, most of them you could probably hold in your hands, which I’ve done a few times. It’s very fun.”
