The Millet

And Superbowl Stallions are here, thanks to the Scottsdale Rotary Club Stallion Stampede! “Inspire” and “Spirit” were commissioned by the AZ Superbowl Host Committee and created by Millet House Artist Vanessa Ortiz Zapata. The colors reflect the team uniforms as well as the spectacular beauty of the desert and of Arizona sunrises and sunsets.

We are delighted that THREE of our Millet House artists were chosen for the Scottsdale Rotary Club Stallion Stampede! Tiesha Harrison’s “Sunflower Soul” (left) was featured in the Scottsdale Parada del Sol on February 4! Vanessa Ortiz Zapata’s “Spirit” and “Inspire” (top right) have now been placed in Old Town Scottsdale! And Andrea Rogers is currently completing work on “Rosie”, short for Rosario (bottom right.) See if you can find ALL 19 stallions over the next several months. In April they will be auctioned for charity, with the artists receiving a portion of the auction price.

UPDATE!

“Spirit” and “Inspire,” stallions painted by artist Vanessa Ortiz-Zapata, have been placed in Old Town Scottsdale until April. You can see them there!

There are 19 hand-painted stallions altogether that will be displayed all over Scottsdale. Watch for updates for the locations of Tiesha Harris’s “Sunflower Soul” and Andrea Rogers’ “Rosie” as they are placed. I hear that there will be a map of the locations of all 19!

Scottsdale City Plaza

5th and Marshall in Old Town Scottsdale

The Millet House, 440 W 1^st Street in Mesa

invites you to our Martin Luther King Day celebration Jan 16, 2023 12-5 pm

After the Downtown Mesa parade, please join us at the Millet House Gallery and Community Space as we create a permanent Unity mosaic under the guidance of Andrea Rogers, watch a soul-stirring performance piece by Marva Harris, and have fun creating art to take home with the assistance of Theresa Schlechty and Meghan Mitchell!

The Gallery itself will be open all day with our current show, “Celebrating Life!”

Schedule:

12 noon-3 pm: Gallery opens, and art workshops get underway

3 pm – 5pm: art workshops continue and mosaic project begins

3:30 pm: Marva Harris will be performing a piece called “Bigger Than” which coincides with the name of a 17 x 64” mixed media, stretched canvas, original painting  of the same name which was created to elicit a poignant dialogue on being Black in America. The artist seeks to invite a wider audience to hear the positive self-talk that is necessary in order to survive and thrive as a Black person living in the U.S. This performance is dedicated to the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who dreamed a world “bigger than” the small space of ignorance.

Bring your water bottle and we can fill it!

Rain? No problem. We go forward and you can stay dry!

All are free, gifts from the artists to you and yours.

12 noon-2 pm: Paint with artist Vanessa Ortiz-Zapata. You will create a holiday painting to give as a gift or to display in your home! Canvas board and acrylics are supplied; no experience necessary.

4pm-6pm: Help prepare for our Martin Luther King Day project and learn something about ceramics with artist Andrea Rogers. You will help glaze tiles for a bench in this meditative workshop. Be sure to return in January on MLK Day to help place the tiles!

4pm-6pm: Discover something about yourself with this intriguing contemplative workshop by Heather Smith-Gearns and Skye Rockett. You will use the neurographics technique to create a drawing suitable for framing.

2pm-6pm: Visit from MABEL, the Mesa Arts Center mobile art lab! She will be parked on the front lawn with an art project for you.

Also: Live painting by. Artist David Morgan!

Celebrating Life!

at

The Millet House

440 W 1^st Street Mesa 85201

A day of celebration with art, music, food, joy!

The day is a gift from all of us to all of us (you, too!) – because we all need it. We’ve come out of a global pandemic into a changed world. On December 16 we will celebrate this new world. We’ll plant seeds, metaphorically and literally.

Our concurrent gallery show is also called “Celebrating Life” so please come inside and enjoy the work of 15 different artists.

All of the art workshops and music are free; the artists and performers are giving freely of their talent and love. You are also welcome to bring your gift of time, music, celebration. Just let us know and we will put it on the schedule. Or just come and enjoy. Your gift can be your presence!

Before we can celebrate, we will say goodbye to the past. The Millet House lost people dear to us – Abel (Sa’lai Woi), Dennis, Kamal — and in their honor we’ll display their art in our gallery show. We’ll also install a permanent memorial outside, dedicated to all those we lost including those you wish to honor…and we will say goodbye to that part in ourselves that we lost, because we all lost part of ourselves…and we will welcome and celebrate our new world.

December 16 Schedule:

10 am—All Day: Studio Sale (gift shop and outside.)

Courtyard:

11 am: installation of our permanent memorial

7 pm: Music

Walt Richardson

Ras Patrick from the Rastafarmers

Kimbo from Radical Mix

Hopi reggae artist Casper Lomayesva

Inside:

10 am: Group art show with lemonade and cookies in the gallery.

12 pm—2 pm: Artist workshop in the gallery: Paint a holiday-themed picture with artist Vanessa Ortiz Zapata

2 pm—4 pm: Artist workshop in the gallery: Andrea Rogers – help glaze tiles for MLK day

4 pm – 5 pm: Artist workshop in the gallery: Skye Rockett and Heather Smith-Gearns teach neurographic drawing. Discover new truths about yourself!

6 pm: Memory circle in the gallery: another chance to mention names of those we lost and celebrate what they gave us

Front Lawn:

2 pm – 6 pm: MABEL, the Mesa Arts Center mobile art lab will visit with an art-and-seed-planting project

All day: Collaborative chalk drawing imagined and designed by artist Meghan Thee Dragon. All are welcome to add to the drawing. Meghan will add finishing touches at 4 pm.

Live painting with David Morgan

Food truck(s)

We’ll utilize the courtyard, the front yard, and the indoor spaces on December 16 for an all-day festival at The Millet House.

Celebrating Life is meant as a transformational gift from all of us to all of us, and all are invited. We will install a permanent memorial in loving memory of those we have lost, of that in ourselves we have lost in the past years (because we have all lost part of ourselves), and of our old world. We’ll then turn to celebrate the new world, decide what we can do to best live in it, and enjoy the day. And the day will be fun. Food, music, art workshops and more, all free! Let’s bring the community back together!

The Millet House artists are also working on a group show with the same theme: Celebrating Life. This will be up all during December and the art will be available for purchase. You may very well find holiday gifts! We all need art!

And the show will be a good place to bring the kids — for a small amount they can do their own shopping for gifts!

All are free, gifts from the artists to you and yours.

12 noon-2 pm: Paint with artist Vanessa Ortiz-Zapata. You will create a holiday painting to give as a gift or to display in your home! Canvas board and acrylics are supplied; no experience necessary.

4pm-6pm: Help prepare for our Martin Luther King Day project and learn something about ceramics with artist Andrea Rogers. You will help glaze tiles for a bench in this meditative workshop. Be sure to return in January on MLK Day to help place the tiles!

4pm-6pm: Discover something about yourself with this intriguing contemplative workshop by Heather Smith-Gearns and Skye Rockett. You will use the neurographics technique to create a drawing suitable for framing.

Yes! The Millet House is opening its doors to a new season, in a time when many people carry with them anxiety and sorrow. It’s time to celebrate! but first, let us heal.

Final night for this show by artist Brenton Rhodes is Friday, September 16, 5-8 pm.

View selected works from the show here: The Art of Wellness. All works in this online exhibit can be purchased. All are framed.

https://artbysubtraction.company.site/

Instagram

Bio:

I’m from Texas, lived in NYC, and Boston growing up. My first encounter with fine art was in Manhattan, after that I started taking classes. I did school in Utah and Arizona and I have been painting for 10 years. The majority of my work is acrylic or mixed media on paper.

My work is purely autobiographical. It’s about myself and my surroundings. Color is the foundation of my work.

 The Art of Wellness – I believe art can heal, I believe images can enlighten the mind, colors can change a mood. Just like medicine we can consume it.

We are raising funds to make the Millet House fully accessible to people with a disability. Every little bit helps!

If you donate this week, July 25-August 2, we have a matching grant of up to $1500 from an anonymous and generous donor. Yes! Your donation will be matched! (Note that Floaters Foundation is the name of our little 501(c)3 nonprofit here at the Millet House.)

You can read all about it AND donate on our page with the Gannett Foundation/USA Today/Arizona Republic: click on the images with the roses, below.