What does Miller feel about being a master artist?

An artist who first worked as an architectural draftsman and now creates solely in black-and-white graphite will be the master artist featured in this year’s Birds in Artexhibition at Wausau’s Woodson Art Museum.

Terry Miller, 67, was born in Iowa and now lives in Maryland, and he has had his art displayed in the annual exhibition 21 times. One of his pieces first was chosen for Birds in Art in 1991, and his work has been a part of the show for every year since except 1997. His artwork also was featured in a solo exhibition at the Woodson in 2008. That exhibition, Unknown Bridges, featured the elements of bridges, with birds or other animals taking a secondary theme.

“Birds in Art” is a world-famous exhibition that draws hundreds of artist entries every year. More than 100 paintings, drawings, sculptures and other works are part of the Sept. 7 to Nov. 10 show, and all must have been created during the preceding two years.

What does Miller feel about being a master artist? “Panic,” he said Wednesday afternoon in a telephone interview. “Having had 32 master artists coming before me, I have very large shoes to fill, I think. My medium is such a radical departure from what’s been chosen before.”

A master artist typically, but not always, is chosen with each Birds in Art exhibition. The choice is made with input from preceding master artists and staff and board members of the Woodson, said museum Director Kathy Foley.

“Terry Miller is the consummate artist — a keen observer, articulate spokesman and superb draftsman,” Foley said. “While he is differentiated by his medium, he has mastered it, yielding graphite works that are without equal.”

As a master artist, Miller will receive a medal, speak on the opening Saturday and be able to submit recent works for future Birds in Art shows without having to go through the usual jury selection process.

Miller graduated from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, and as he attended college, his fine arts interests were in abstract, colorful paintings.

He left that genre behind as he worked as a architectural draftsman, and later as a teacher, he said. When he returned to fine art in 1990, he found drawing was his preferred genre, Miller said. He now uses the precision of architectural drawing, but it often blends with some of the abstract concepts he loved as a young man.

The shock retirement of legendary Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson Wednesday sent the team's US-traded shares lower as analysts and fans awaited to see who would succeed as the team boss.

Earlier Wednesday, the Premier League champions shocked the sporting world when they announced that Ferguson will retire at the end of the season, ending the most successful managerial reign in English football.

Ferguson, 71, guided United to 13 Premier League titles and two European Champions League crowns in 26 years in charge at Old Trafford.

He will remain at United as a director and club ambassador, and said he was confident he was stepping down with the team in good shape.

"The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time," Ferguson said in a statement.

United, owned by the family of US investor Malcolm Glazer, did not immediately name a replacement, but most speculation focused on Everton's David Moyes to fill Ferguson's seat.

Despite the fall, the shares were still trading more than 30 percent above the $14.00 initial public offering price last August.

"Sir Alex Ferguson's departure from Manchester United at the end of the season will leave a chasm, which the replacement may find impossible to fill," Richard Hunter of Hargreaves Lansdown said.

Even so, he said, "The Manchester United merchandising machine will not grind to a halt overnight, and there is little reason to suspect that the club will not build further on the impressive third quarter results announced last week."