Millard-Mendez titled this piece “Climate Change Plan B Boat” and it references themes on global warming.
Anna Watson
Staff Writer
The Giertz Gallery will present “Stepping the Mast: Rob Millard-Mendez” from Sept. 25–Nov. 4, featuring solo artist Rob Millard-Mendez.
In the show, Millard-Mendez will display 16 works he has created over the past years.
One piece, titled “Climate Change Plan B Boat,” characterizes themes on global warming. The sculpture is 40 inches high with a barge and metal poles holding a plastic house. The idea is that people who deny climate change want to escape it by living higher and higher above ground and letting all the other issues fade to the bottom.
The barge was an idea Millard-Mendez captured after experiencing the great scale of barges on the riverfront by his home in Evansville, Ind.
Millard-Mendez says the bottom pieces were made from items found in the trash, the idea being that it is sustainable. Some of the other parts used were from an old factory in Evansville that burned down.
Dark humor is one of the major themes in Millard-Mendez’s work.
Another work by Millard-Mendez titled “The Next Big Thing” is a boat that is made out of tongues in the middle. The tongues were bought off a joke website, but the idea is to poke fun of people who talk without letting others talk first. The tongue on the very top is a tongue from a coyote Millard-Mendez bought off a taxidermy website.
Millard-Mendez is an artist and educator who has presented work in over 500 exhibitions, more than 25 of which were solo. His has been shown in all 50 states, as well as internationally.
“We are excited to have an artist like this exhibit his work here for students,” said Lisa Costello, the director of the art gallery. “So many [of] our students take 3-dimensional ceramics, design and color theory, so I think it applies to so many students in general.”
Mendez-Millard specializes in woodworking and is process-oriented. The connotations he makes in his art depict metaphors he is thinking about.
On his website, he writes the statement: “the primary aim in my work is to illustrate and analyze concepts that I find enthralling.”
Costello finds relevance in his work for Parkland students.
“[His work] gives students something to think about,” Costello said.
Millard-Mendez was born in a small town in Massachusetts with old textile factories and mills. As a boy, his summers where spent hunting tuna fish with his dad who was a commercial fisher.
He was the first of his family to attend college at the University of Massachusetts on full academic scholarship. He always wanted to study art, but he first arrived on campus planning to study pre-medical coursework because of the financial competency.
His sophomore year he switched his major to sculpture.
Millard-Mendez is now a professor in the Art and Design Department at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. He teaches everything from art appreciation to painting, but specializes in studio courses on woodworking.
“Being a lifelong student has invigorated my teaching,” Millard-Mendez writes. “I continuously hone my own artistic skills and learn new sculptural processes.”
On Sept. 28 at 1:15 p.m., Millard-Mendez will be speaking in the gallery lounge and giving a short demonstration for students. The reception for “Stepping the Mast” is set for the same day, from 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Additional information on the Giertz Gallery and the exhibition of Millard-Mendez’s works can be seen on Parkland’s online homepage at parkland.edu by clicking on “News and Events” near the bottom of the screen. The exhibit’s page can be found under the “Campus Events” subheading.
