Janie Mills - the Artist
Photo: janie mills and husband.
I am Janie Mills
I was told that as soon as you make this adamant statement to the universe, then, that is when you become an artist!! The statement is your commitment! Own the statement! You must make no apologies, no excuses, no explanations – you just MAKE the statement! I traveled the long road to make the statement. It was December 1999. I was an emotionally, spiritually, physically burned-out Nurse, when, I took my first art class. I knew nothing about how art was done. I had never even had an art class in school. I can recall the statement that when I trained myself to look at things through an artist’s eye, I would never see things in the same way again. I did not know how profound that statement would be. I now look at NOTHING in the same way. My art work and collections require personal symbolism. A few that cannot escape me are feathers, nests, eggs, sea shells, old books, architectural elements, religious artifacts, shrines, cemetery photos and crusty, textural, junk. I collect oddities. Surrounding myself with vignettes of what I consider sacred spaces, filled with meaningful collections, feed the core of my soul. It doesn't matter if other people "get it". I have always been a passionate gleaner/gatherer of outcasts - the old, tattered from use, long forgotten treasures. Somehow, I felt they all had a story begging to be shared and were just waiting for me to acquire the vision to really see them and willing to breath new life into them.
I am blessed to have been married to my beloved since our college days in 1974. We now live in Wisconsin, but are both originally from Texas. He is an Architect and has prodded me toward this so-called artist’s journey. While I was standing behind him as he was drawing or water coloring, making the usual statements of “I wish I could do that.” He was the one saying “You CAN do that”. He’s never, ever said anything to the contrary. There is never any doubt that I could have ever been paired with anyone else that would truly “get me”. That is huge. He knows that every time I have, as yet, another late arrival, that I stopped to look at something shiny (actually, I love crusty, rusty) and didn’t even realize the darkness that announces days end. He knows I can’t cram enough of what I want to experience in the allotted time in a day. He knows that the car he just vacuumed will be filled with some weird, side of the road, cast-off that I think has potential in some yet, unknown project. He just knows.We are truly blessed with a 26 year old son with a sweet soul that has always been blind to color, handicap and popularity. I celebrate his courage to live in his own skin. He lives in Colorado, and I miss his insight that the formality of a phone call or email cannot replace. He is an untapped poet/writer that pens a raw truth. I have longed to watch my daughter grow into her own self. She is 30 years old, but lived in her earthly body for only the first 2 years of her life. I know that I will recognize her beautiful soul when we are together again. The heart has its own memory, like the mind. And in it, we enshrine the precious keepsakes. All our family is back in our home land of Texas. They are hard working, salt of the earth kind of folk. Living on the farm was what I couldn’t wait to get away from- only to come full circle, longing for the simpler life and mud between my toes. Yes, I am the artist that owned a little art and antique shop called Nest in Fort Collins, Colorado. I adored it. We experienced so many women discover of self-worth through the classes we brought. But my beloved’s work brought us here for another journey. No, I am not Catholic. Do you have to be to love shrines and rosaries? Fascinated with different spiritual beliefs, customs, and the humans’ innate need for the sacred, I have collected religious artifacts in all faiths, in all languages. With every move, I have gone about carefully setting vignettes of sacred in and around our home. I want to study that need. This is my season for quiet. Goethe says that genius is in the quiet. We shall see.......
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