Solo Show: Patrick John Mills

Raw Naked Soul.

November 3rd - 26th. 2011.

Solo Show: Patrick John Mills

November 3rd - 26th. 2011.
Grand Opening: Thursday. November 3rd. 2011. 6 - 9 pm.

Admission is Free: Everyone invited.

The exhibition is a solo effort that features the works of painter, poet, and gallery owner Patrick John Mills. At the same time, the gallery will be expanding to approximately twice its current size. Mills will be opening the second floor of the building to the public, a feat that will allow him to exhibit larger exhibitions and works in the gallery’s collection.

Raw Naked Soul is an examination of Mills’s career as a painter. It is the largest and most comprehensive solo show he has ever displayed. The show will feature “some of my morbid works, some landscape paintings, some extremely textured abstract works, many drawings, studies, and as many works that have never been seen nor photographed or shown before,” proving that Mills’s career is one that spans many different genres and styles of painting.

Mills’s work displays a passion for art that is intrinsic to the life of an artist. As an artist, he sees no separation between art and life. Every experience, thought, memory, and feeling is incorporated into his work. He breathes and feels art with extreme intensity and channels this into a strong and dedicated drive to produce work that challenges its audience. Raw Naked Soul celebrates Mills’s desire to creatively capture various life experiences on canvas, to demonstrate that life and art should not be separated.

The exhibition runs from November 3 until November 26 with a Vernissage to be held on Thursday November 3 during First Thursday – Wellington West’s monthly Art Walk.

The Patrick John Mills Gallery features monthly exhibitions that feature the works of emerging and established artists in the Ottawa community. Each show seeks to stimulate its audience with raw, expressive, and progressive works.

For more information or images of works featured in I Killed the Group of Seven, please contact the Patrick John Mills Gallery at 613 729 0406 or via email: patrickjohnmills@gmail.com. The gallery is located at 286 Hinchey Ave.

Raw Naked Soul: Interview with Patrick John Mills

Mathieu Laca: Can you give us a few clues regarding the body of work you'll present at Raw Naked Soul, your upcoming solo exhibition?

Patrick John Mills: The gallery will double in size. The entire building will be opened up to showcase art. The exhibition space will be 2900 square feet. This will allow me to show selected works from all various stages and styles. In the Raw Naked Soul exhibition, I will be including some of my morbid works, some landscape paintings, some extremely textured abstract works, many drawings, studies, and as many works that have never been seen nor photographed or shown before. This will be the largest, most comprehensive display of my work in twenty years. I am very excited.

Mathieu: In your recent brightly colored abstractions, you can apply over an inch thick of paint onto canvas. Why?

Patrick: Perhaps I feel inadequate. Somehow I feel I need to give more. So I obsessively keep wishing to give more. I lose myself in the process. More More More. Push Push Push... before I know it I have used 30, 40, 50, 60 large tubes of paint on one canvas.

Mathieu: You recently published a book of paintings, poems and stories in which you express a very bold vision of art. A vision with absolutely no restrain of any kind. What makes you so obsessive in pushing limits?

Patrick: I am not wishing to push limits. I am simply expressing myself. My emotions are very intense. My mind is a hard place to reside. So I wrestle with trying to find peace and harmony. But my mind screams. I wish for peace and harmony. My journey is to find silence and softness. Time in my studio is a distilment.

Mathieu: It's rare to find a successful painter like you with works so emotionally charged. Why is that?

Patrick: I work like a fucking maniac. I never stop working. I keep painting, promoting, painting, pushing... The voices in my head are very demanding. So I focus on my work intensely. Somehow this helps me manage. I do not wish to sound like a wimp. My mind is a very sharp, uncompromising mental space. I constantly think about suicide. I love life. I love death. I love sunshine. I love darkness. The recent paintings of one inch thick paint are about finding balance. Success is only about continuing. Money, properties, sales. Those are matters outside of me. Success to me is to paint. I continue. I am true to each day. That is my success. The rest are details. My time in the studio is my gold. My studio is anywhere and everywhere.

Mathieu: People who know you well have come to realize that your entire life is a work of art, that you make no difference between art and life. Why?

Patrick: There is no difference between art and life. Art is everything. I want my life to be everything. I want to experience everything with completeness. There is no reason for this... it is simply my nature. I accept this. As I have accepted myself. It can be very difficult to live your life true and pure to your heart and soul. It really threatens those around you. This has been a very painful reality.

Mathieu: How do you see your work evolving in the next years?

Patrick: I do not try to think about that. I try to live in the moment. Like a child I focus on now. Living in the moment is overwhelming enough. The doors to tomorrow are open to anything. My life. I could be in a car crash tomorrow. I could have a stroke, something could smash and crack my skull... I only think about today.

Mathieu: Has the fact of running your own gallery affected your practice as a painter in any way?

Patrick: It has given me great joy. My studio is very lonely. I have been alone for so long. I love people. I have a need to give. One of the greatest joys and rewards I have experienced in my life has been to help you. Mathieu Laca. You are a great artist. And I have felt so fortunate to be in a position to assist you in your life. This has warmed my heart in ways that simple words can not express.

Running a gallery has also been a pain in the ass. There are many times that I waste my energy on uselessness. Some artists I have wasted my energy on. Disrespect. Lack of humanity. In wishing to help art, artists, the community... this has resulted in not painting in my studio as much as I would have wished. But everything is art. Sometimes this energy does not land on canvas. I find managing a gallery difficult to balance at times.

I get to show my work. Anything I paint, create, envision. I get to manifest and share with those around me. It is such a joy. It is better when I get to share it with others. It is especially a joy when I get to share it with others that embrace it.

thank you,

Patrick