The trouble with worrying so much about your security in the future is that you feel so insecure in the present.
One of Miller’s most famous works, International Lonely Guy is taken from singer Elton John’s reflections upon waking up alone in a new city. The singer spent much of his career on the road, travelling all over the globe and spending a lot of time in new and unfamiliar cities. Largely due to such notable inspiration, International Lonely Guy has become one of Miller’s most popular works.
The print comes in three variations, a lithograph from 2008, a screen print from 2010 and a deck chair from 2013. The designs are very similar, and of the compositions appear to be dirtied by dark smudges, with the white band in which the title text resides painted a slightly off-white colour. This is an intentional artistic decision that Miller employs to bring a sense of nostalgia and familiarity to the print.
This Harland Miller print is part of the artist's wider project, thePenguin series, in which he takes old Penguin dust jackets and changes the titles - appropriating the familiar format and imbuing them with his characteristic dry wit, dark humour and sarcasm. Miller came up with the idea for this series while wandering the streets of Paris, like the fictional protagonist of International Lonely Guy. Miller stumbled upon a box of old, second-hand Penguin books, and he was drawn to the simple and well-known cover design.