PRESS
Nothing Like Napa, by Alexandra Sharova
Santa Barbara Life and Style (p 72 - 77)
November/December 2020
Santa Barbara Life and Style (p 72 - 77)
November/December 2020
Author Alexandra & friend Kara. "Your class was truly one of the highlights of our trip! It was such a wonderful experience."
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Excerpt featuring Jessel Miller
Our morning begins with a less than obvious activity for Napa: a painting class at Jessel Gallery. The studio, which doubles as a gallery and eclectic boutique filled with antiques, vintage gowns, and of course art of various mediums, has been serving the Napa Valley since 1984. Jessel, the owner, head artist, and our teacher for the day, guides us through a playful three-step process. For her, art is about fun and freedom, just like our session. I lose myself in a ménage of colors, as my flowing strokes leave a rainbow-mess across the canvas. In-between sparingly delivered directions—meant to allow students to use their own creative liberties—Jessel shares her background and in a sense, her transcendent process. I’m quite impressed with my Pollock-like cluster of colors, until inevitably Jessel tells us it’s time to mess them up—step two. While I always knew art had therapeutic qualities, the process of creating chaos, letting go of attachment to a particular outcome, and of course escaping into my imagination, is the mental getaway I’d been seeking for months. The class seemed symbolic of how to deal with the chaos of the world today...all while providing a self-made souvenir; a kaleidoscopic collection of vibrance and ferocity. |
Jessel Miller is having the time of her life. She has spent decades at the heart and soul of Napa Valley’s art world, owning and operating the beloved Jessel Gallery on Atlas Peak Road since 1984.
Jessel originally envisioned the former whiskey distillery as a giant gallery promoting her own and other artist’s avant-garde work, only to discover that was not commercially viable in the Napa Valley. She began painting vineyards and landscapes — “Whatever it took to keep a roof over us, and the bills paid,” she candidly explains. Over the years, the 6,500 square foot space evolved into an intoxicating mix of gallery-business-studio-teaching facility-Napa Valley landmark.
Jessel is a bit of a Renaissance woman, fitting for an artist who studied her craft in the birthplace of the Renaissance, Florence, Italy. She is an acclaimed artist, the author of six books (a seventh to be released soon), an art and painting instructor, a songwriter, and an accomplished businesswoman.
The vast collection of art she has created over the years acts as a map of her personal journey as an artist. Her earliest work shows the dreamlike imagery that reappears later, then a series of exquisite portraits are followed by a series of vibrant, abstract nature paintings and still life works that evoke the atmosphere and emotion of the scenes better than real life.
Jessel originally envisioned the former whiskey distillery as a giant gallery promoting her own and other artist’s avant-garde work, only to discover that was not commercially viable in the Napa Valley. She began painting vineyards and landscapes — “Whatever it took to keep a roof over us, and the bills paid,” she candidly explains. Over the years, the 6,500 square foot space evolved into an intoxicating mix of gallery-business-studio-teaching facility-Napa Valley landmark.
Jessel is a bit of a Renaissance woman, fitting for an artist who studied her craft in the birthplace of the Renaissance, Florence, Italy. She is an acclaimed artist, the author of six books (a seventh to be released soon), an art and painting instructor, a songwriter, and an accomplished businesswoman.
The vast collection of art she has created over the years acts as a map of her personal journey as an artist. Her earliest work shows the dreamlike imagery that reappears later, then a series of exquisite portraits are followed by a series of vibrant, abstract nature paintings and still life works that evoke the atmosphere and emotion of the scenes better than real life.
Jessel Miller 1988
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Jessel Miller 2020
Photo by Layne Randolph |
And then 2020 happened. The global pandemic forced businesses to shut down and for the world to take a breather. The temporary closure of the gallery was like a palate cleanser for Jessel's artistic inspiration. Intuitive and perceptive, she told herself, “I need to mulch. Something is coming, and I need to step out of the way.”
Within weeks, “I was dragged into the studio at 3 in the morning, and the art was just coming out of me. It needed to speak,” she said.
Within weeks, “I was dragged into the studio at 3 in the morning, and the art was just coming out of me. It needed to speak,” she said.
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Her experience as an artist enabled her to express on canvas the messages that were coming through her as their conduit. The result was a veritable explosion of divinely inspired paintings.
Her latest creations are a mixture of fantasy and reality, and her use of dazzling color heightens the Chagall-like allegories that run through these thought-provoking fairy tale images of fish, birds, elephants, and turtles to create the dreamlike imagery of “Jesselism.” 
The Geisha and her Fish, Jessel Miller
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African Courage Elephant< Jessel Miller
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And then there are the faces—faces abstracted from her exacting skill as a portrait artist—faces reflecting a world of cultures shining through the chaos, floating in a glimmering celestial universe, deftly conveying the titles of her latest collections, “Honored Souls” and “Soulful Voices.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr start, Jessel Miller
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Soulful Voices book cover, Jessel Miller
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A Child in Paris, Jessel Miller
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These paintings, although spectacularly beautiful, convey deeper global significance – the silver lining of the pandemic. The world is resting; water is cleaner, the air is purer, animals and fish are thriving in the rejuvenated ecosystem, and the world is spiritually linked.
There has been overwhelming recognition that her illustrious life’s work has culminated in this collection of intensely emotional paintings and that her moment is now.
When asked if she agreed, the naturally exuberant Jessel exclaimed, “It is now! I can feel it!”
"Jessel has dedicated her life to other artists through www.JesselGallery.com, and now, for the first time, she has launched a website solely dedicated to her work, www.JesselMiller.com.
There has been overwhelming recognition that her illustrious life’s work has culminated in this collection of intensely emotional paintings and that her moment is now.
When asked if she agreed, the naturally exuberant Jessel exclaimed, “It is now! I can feel it!”
"Jessel has dedicated her life to other artists through www.JesselGallery.com, and now, for the first time, she has launched a website solely dedicated to her work, www.JesselMiller.com.
While the coronavirus pandemic is taking a toll on the arts and artists across the nation, for Napa artist Jessel Miller, the effect is a challenge that she describes as “an enormous overhaul, transformation, evolution and complete reinvention of my art.”
Miller opened her gallery 35 years ago in an rambling old stone winery on Atlas Peak Road in Napa. Over the years, she evolved in a dual role, both as an artist and a supporter of others, showing works local and international artists and local artisans, and hosting receptions for writers and musicians and teaching classes and making the gallery available for other artists to teach.
Mingled in the gallery, among Guy Buffet’s witty, culinary paintings, Daniel Mundy’s idyllic pastoral studies and Stuart Dunkel’s charming paintings of mice at work and play, one could find Miller’s works, too — romantic watercolors of vineyards, fields, rivers and mountains, all filled with a rainbow of colors.
“Jessel Miller,” said Napa author Lenore Hirsch, “is the heart of the valley.”
Today, however, the main gallery has undergone a metamorphosis. White tarps cover the floor, and four different painting stations display works in progress. A dizzying explosion of paintings cover the walls. More are stacked on tables and propped against each other on the floor.
The paintings are dark and wild, swirling patchworks of jewel tones, scattered with gold. From the storm of colors and shapes, forms emerge: an owl, a hawk, a wolf, a giraffe. Caught in them, too, are human faces. Some are recognizable: Michelle Obama, Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, Greta Thunberg, John McCain. Other faces might have been drawn from a timeless well of archetypal images, angels, goddesses, and nearly formless windblown shapes.
Perhaps the most striking painting, resting on a massive easel beneath spotlights is titled “The Healer.”
They are all Miller’s works, and they are unlike anything she has ever created before in her long career as an artist. Miller is painting daily,moving from one station to another, turning out work after work. She says it is “as if a door has opened — or maybe it’s doors and windows all at once” to capture in one dizzying whirlwind of creativity, the spirit of our times, and find inside it, hope.
Soulful voices emerge“When my family abruptly moved from deep in the woods of northern Ontario to Miami, Florida in 1965 I had no outlet for my very creative soul,” Miller writes in the blog she is posting to chronicle her work.
Growing up in Canada,” she said, “music, art and movement were my greatest daily joy. Landing in Florida, my heart and art turned inward and I began drawing for hours in my room. Faces began to appear on my pages and words and music flew out of my hand. It was the worst of times because of the drastic change in climate, culture and lack of friendships, yet it was also the beginning of my focus towards a creative life, which to this day is what I do every single day.”
When she moved to Napa as a young artist, she left behind her early work in portraits and began painting light-hearted, joyful studies, inspired by the valley that became her home. She became the artist for the now-defunct Mustard Festival and published a series of colorful books “for children of all ages.” Illustrated with her merry art, her Mustards stories, as well as “Angels in the Vineyards,” and “The Calico Cat” advocated the good, simple life on the land.
The metamorphosis in Miller’s works, both style and content, began last fall when she decided to try using acrylics, instead of her usual watercolors. The new medium led her to experiment with abstract paintings “a whole new world.”
In November, she began preparing for the gallery’s annual holiday show and that brings together artisans and artists from Napa Valley. “It is always filled bright and full of energy and light,” Miller said. “While setting up the Christmas show, I noticed a couple of blank spaces on the wall. I popped out two abstract pieces, put frames on them — and voila! — a door to a new exciting road opened and I raced through it.”
She began painting more abstracts experimentally on paper. When she turned to painting on canvas, much to her astonishment, a figure appeared in one of her works.
“At first, I thought the woman was holding a child, and the child’s head was the round, greenish-gold ball. When I stepped back, I realized the child was holding the world up in its hands.”
She added, “That painting was the first time in years I let the messages take over, and I allowed the paint and canvas to guide me. I let them speak.”
“When this transformation took complete hold of me, I would get up and race down to the gallery at all hours, from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., and start painting. Instead of fighting the forces, I gave in to them and honored and trusted that this was really important work.”
Miller said, “I realized I had a job to do and a new book to write. After publishing six books I thought I was done with books. Imagine my internal shock when I realized there was more to be said and I was being given the task.”
As more forms emerged in her work, shapes of animals and sometimes letters, she decided to call her new work “Soulful Voices.” She began writing text to accompany the paintings, capturing voices she felt were calling for help in averting the impending climate catastrophe: whales, elephants, giraffes, and monkeys, as well as human children and mysterious spirits.
Throughout January, absorbed in her work, she said, “I made a conscious decision that I could no longer watch the negative news and all that ripping and tearing of common kindness ... I cleared my life and turned off all ‘bad news.”
But then a friend came to visit on Jan. 26, and “mentioned that Kobe Bryant and his daughter, plus several other people, had died in a tragic helicopter accident. I didn’t really know who Kobe Bryant was.”
Nonetheless, that night, she got up to paint the faces of the father and daughter. “What struck me and is driving me to this day is that life is so fragile. The instant death of these precious souls reconfirmed my commitment to getting this book out as a quickly as possible.”
Tuning back into the news of the pandemic overtaking the world gave her a new energy and more faces for her paintings. In one of her paintings, letters emerged, spelling out, “hope.”
“Every day, images are appearing and I simply get out of the way and let them come through,” she said. “Every night I ask the universe, ‘What is the message I need to paint?’
“One night, the words ‘moon man and nightingale’ came through loud and clear. The nightingale has a long history with symbolic associations ranging from creativity, the muse, nature’s purity, and, in Western spiritual tradition, virtue and goodness. The nightingale became a voice of nature. I looked online for images of this bird and suddenly it hit me. This was not just about a bird, it was about Florence Nightingale, who devoted her life to helping the sick.” Nightingale became another face in a painting.
As for “The Healer,” she said, “(it) came in a completely different body when I first painted her, and I let her take time to reveal herself over a month’s time. This is the process we are all dealing with and I believe if we are vigilant and also protect our minds from too much negative news, we will weather this storm together.
She added, “This image is dedicated to all those powerful brave souls who spend each day caring for others and putting their own lives at risk for all of us.”
“I am listening to the doctors and scientists, while spending this time finding creative ways to express my thoughts,” Miller said. “We will rise to the challenge. For the first time in 35 years, I have nothing to do but paint. I think this is what is happening to a lot of creators. I have a lifetime of images inside me. I am flying.”
Visitors to the gallery, before the shelter-in-place directive took effect, began asking to buy her new paintings, and Miller has agreed to sell some, both originals and giclee prints, with the condition that she keep the originals for now, until the coronavirus crisis has passed, and she can again host a show in her gallery.
And the paintings will all appear in “Soulful Voices,” which Miller calls, “the culmination of 70 years of flowering formations and wisdom gleamed and gathered in my life adventure.”
For more on her work, to follow her blog, or to purchase paintings or prints, visit jesselgallery.com.
Miller opened her gallery 35 years ago in an rambling old stone winery on Atlas Peak Road in Napa. Over the years, she evolved in a dual role, both as an artist and a supporter of others, showing works local and international artists and local artisans, and hosting receptions for writers and musicians and teaching classes and making the gallery available for other artists to teach.
Mingled in the gallery, among Guy Buffet’s witty, culinary paintings, Daniel Mundy’s idyllic pastoral studies and Stuart Dunkel’s charming paintings of mice at work and play, one could find Miller’s works, too — romantic watercolors of vineyards, fields, rivers and mountains, all filled with a rainbow of colors.
“Jessel Miller,” said Napa author Lenore Hirsch, “is the heart of the valley.”
Today, however, the main gallery has undergone a metamorphosis. White tarps cover the floor, and four different painting stations display works in progress. A dizzying explosion of paintings cover the walls. More are stacked on tables and propped against each other on the floor.
The paintings are dark and wild, swirling patchworks of jewel tones, scattered with gold. From the storm of colors and shapes, forms emerge: an owl, a hawk, a wolf, a giraffe. Caught in them, too, are human faces. Some are recognizable: Michelle Obama, Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, Greta Thunberg, John McCain. Other faces might have been drawn from a timeless well of archetypal images, angels, goddesses, and nearly formless windblown shapes.
Perhaps the most striking painting, resting on a massive easel beneath spotlights is titled “The Healer.”
They are all Miller’s works, and they are unlike anything she has ever created before in her long career as an artist. Miller is painting daily,moving from one station to another, turning out work after work. She says it is “as if a door has opened — or maybe it’s doors and windows all at once” to capture in one dizzying whirlwind of creativity, the spirit of our times, and find inside it, hope.
Soulful voices emerge“When my family abruptly moved from deep in the woods of northern Ontario to Miami, Florida in 1965 I had no outlet for my very creative soul,” Miller writes in the blog she is posting to chronicle her work.
Growing up in Canada,” she said, “music, art and movement were my greatest daily joy. Landing in Florida, my heart and art turned inward and I began drawing for hours in my room. Faces began to appear on my pages and words and music flew out of my hand. It was the worst of times because of the drastic change in climate, culture and lack of friendships, yet it was also the beginning of my focus towards a creative life, which to this day is what I do every single day.”
When she moved to Napa as a young artist, she left behind her early work in portraits and began painting light-hearted, joyful studies, inspired by the valley that became her home. She became the artist for the now-defunct Mustard Festival and published a series of colorful books “for children of all ages.” Illustrated with her merry art, her Mustards stories, as well as “Angels in the Vineyards,” and “The Calico Cat” advocated the good, simple life on the land.
The metamorphosis in Miller’s works, both style and content, began last fall when she decided to try using acrylics, instead of her usual watercolors. The new medium led her to experiment with abstract paintings “a whole new world.”
In November, she began preparing for the gallery’s annual holiday show and that brings together artisans and artists from Napa Valley. “It is always filled bright and full of energy and light,” Miller said. “While setting up the Christmas show, I noticed a couple of blank spaces on the wall. I popped out two abstract pieces, put frames on them — and voila! — a door to a new exciting road opened and I raced through it.”
She began painting more abstracts experimentally on paper. When she turned to painting on canvas, much to her astonishment, a figure appeared in one of her works.
“At first, I thought the woman was holding a child, and the child’s head was the round, greenish-gold ball. When I stepped back, I realized the child was holding the world up in its hands.”
She added, “That painting was the first time in years I let the messages take over, and I allowed the paint and canvas to guide me. I let them speak.”
“When this transformation took complete hold of me, I would get up and race down to the gallery at all hours, from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., and start painting. Instead of fighting the forces, I gave in to them and honored and trusted that this was really important work.”
Miller said, “I realized I had a job to do and a new book to write. After publishing six books I thought I was done with books. Imagine my internal shock when I realized there was more to be said and I was being given the task.”
As more forms emerged in her work, shapes of animals and sometimes letters, she decided to call her new work “Soulful Voices.” She began writing text to accompany the paintings, capturing voices she felt were calling for help in averting the impending climate catastrophe: whales, elephants, giraffes, and monkeys, as well as human children and mysterious spirits.
Throughout January, absorbed in her work, she said, “I made a conscious decision that I could no longer watch the negative news and all that ripping and tearing of common kindness ... I cleared my life and turned off all ‘bad news.”
But then a friend came to visit on Jan. 26, and “mentioned that Kobe Bryant and his daughter, plus several other people, had died in a tragic helicopter accident. I didn’t really know who Kobe Bryant was.”
Nonetheless, that night, she got up to paint the faces of the father and daughter. “What struck me and is driving me to this day is that life is so fragile. The instant death of these precious souls reconfirmed my commitment to getting this book out as a quickly as possible.”
Tuning back into the news of the pandemic overtaking the world gave her a new energy and more faces for her paintings. In one of her paintings, letters emerged, spelling out, “hope.”
“Every day, images are appearing and I simply get out of the way and let them come through,” she said. “Every night I ask the universe, ‘What is the message I need to paint?’
“One night, the words ‘moon man and nightingale’ came through loud and clear. The nightingale has a long history with symbolic associations ranging from creativity, the muse, nature’s purity, and, in Western spiritual tradition, virtue and goodness. The nightingale became a voice of nature. I looked online for images of this bird and suddenly it hit me. This was not just about a bird, it was about Florence Nightingale, who devoted her life to helping the sick.” Nightingale became another face in a painting.
As for “The Healer,” she said, “(it) came in a completely different body when I first painted her, and I let her take time to reveal herself over a month’s time. This is the process we are all dealing with and I believe if we are vigilant and also protect our minds from too much negative news, we will weather this storm together.
She added, “This image is dedicated to all those powerful brave souls who spend each day caring for others and putting their own lives at risk for all of us.”
“I am listening to the doctors and scientists, while spending this time finding creative ways to express my thoughts,” Miller said. “We will rise to the challenge. For the first time in 35 years, I have nothing to do but paint. I think this is what is happening to a lot of creators. I have a lifetime of images inside me. I am flying.”
Visitors to the gallery, before the shelter-in-place directive took effect, began asking to buy her new paintings, and Miller has agreed to sell some, both originals and giclee prints, with the condition that she keep the originals for now, until the coronavirus crisis has passed, and she can again host a show in her gallery.
And the paintings will all appear in “Soulful Voices,” which Miller calls, “the culmination of 70 years of flowering formations and wisdom gleamed and gathered in my life adventure.”
For more on her work, to follow her blog, or to purchase paintings or prints, visit jesselgallery.com.