Georgia farmer turned scrap metal into folk art, filling his yard with figures that reached museums

When severe glaucoma forced Reuben Aaron Miller to stop working as a farmer and preacher at the age of 65, he turned to scrap metal and wood to keep himself busy. At his home in Rabbittown, near Gainesville, Georgia, Miller began making wind-powered whirligigs, cut-out animal figures and hand-painted tin signs. Over the next 20 years, hundreds of his handmade creations filled his roadside yard. The rural property became a local landmark and later attracted international art collectors and major museums. According to biographical information published by the New Georgia Encyclopedia and his Wikipedia profile, Miller spent almost his entire life on the same piece of land where he was born in July 1912.From farm work to roadside artMiller's early life was marked by hardship. Six months before he was born, his father was shot dead during a dispute over land involving a public road. His mother raised him and his seven siblings alone. Miller left school at the age of 12 to work in a local cotton mill and chop firewood, earning 50 cents for each load. He later became an ordained minister in the Free Will Baptist Church while continuing to work as a farmer. After retiring in the late 1970s...