Ms. Mills was born into the family of the well known Mills Brothers Circus. Her earliest years were spent mostly unattended and with free reign among the circus animals . The chimps, horses, camels and elephants were her closest friends and baby sitters. Early on her training was in the performing arts in the form of dance and theater , earning her a BFA in Theater and a Masters in choreography, however the plastic arts began to take much more of her focus. She is self taught as a painter. Ms. Mills always works in oil on many surfaces ie. linen, birch panel, paper and sometimes cardboard. Most recently, she has added building wood fired ceramic sculpture to her body of work. Since 2001 her paintings have been shown and collected nationally and internationally from galleries and with solo shows in New York, New Orleans, Santa Fe , San Francisco , China and the city of Toulouse, France. Her austere work (both oil painting and sculpture) is often produced in series, and is reflective of a life spent from a position of solitude and an ability to render her own life along with what is often witnessed to its emotional essence. Artist Statement My paintings explore the quiet tension between solitude and connection, stillness and motion. Using oil on linen, birch, book board, or paper, I build simplified compositions where figures and objects exist in pared down spaces - fields of muted color punctuated by sharp moments of brightness or saturated minimal environments that invite reflection rather than narrative. They are emotional rather than descriptive. The figures are often absorbed in moments of pause — sitting, leaning, drifting. Observers. I am drawn to gestures that reveal the interior life without words. A swimmer suspended in water, friends in conversation, a solitary person adrift at sea. With each scene I’m hoping to capture an intimate rhythm of thought and being. Color and form serve as emotional anchors. Flattened planes and subdued palettes create stillness, while flashes of color act as quiet disruptions, signals off presence, vitality, or memory. My brushwork remains deliberate and often textured, leaving traces of process visible within the restraint of composition. Ultimately, my work is about perception and atmosphere — how the simplest shapes can hold complex emotion, and how silence can speak. I hope to offer the viewer a space for contemplation, where the ordinary becomes a vessel for mystery.