The Rev. Nancy Mills

With this landscape painting Mills tries to illustrate the presence of the Kingdom of God with us now. She used gold leaf as a symbol of the Kingdom of God the same way gold leaf is used as a symbol of the Kingdom on halos or icons, and for the background of medieval altarpieces. In using this symbolism in a landscape painting, she illustrates the presence of the Kingdom of God all around us. As Mills writes, "If we could see it, this is what it might look like. As it is, we can just glimpse the Kingdom of God around the edges of things. But usually, we don't see the forest for the trees."

This painting illustrates the Kingdom of God as the forest, and here the artist has put the Kingdom in with the trees. Mills adds, "What I'm trying to say in the painting is, if we pay attention, if we listen up, the glory of the Kingdom of God with us will explode what we too easily see as, and all too easily think is, reality."

One of the Epiphany hymns, #125, The Hymnal 1982, suits the sense of this painting well. Especially v .1,

The people who in darkness walked
have seen a glorious light,
on them broke forth the heavenly dawn
who dwelt in death and night.

The Rev. Nancy Mills attended the Moore College of Art for Women and the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, now called the University of the Arts, with painting as her major study. After moving to the South, she exhibited nationally and internationally and has had gallery representation in Atlanta, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge among other cities. Her work hangs in public, corporate and private Museums along with pieces in Community Arts collections. After pursuing a career as an artist, she answered a call to the priesthood and is now serving in two parishes in the Diocese of Georgia. Her studio is located in the Vicarage of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Thomasville, Georgia. She is now engaged with intentionally integrating her art work more fully into parish ministry. Recently she used one of her paintings to illustrate a point in the sermon for the first time.

The Rev. Nancy Mills
Email: nmills@rose.net

Parish: Good Shepherd Episcopal Church Thomasville, Georgia