Pat Millin
8/31/2022
Pat Millin works on “Monsoon,” depicting a 2018 scene at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Kutupalong is the world’s largest refugee camp. Photo by Sofia Legaspi Dickens
Pat Millin’s mother was an artist. So, naturally, when it came time for Millin to choose a career, she pursued psychology.
“I didn’t want to compete with her,” Millin explained.
After working at a Des Moines hospital for eight years, Millin was hired as the staff psychologist at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville.
“A typical day of work was like going to a different movie every day,” Millin laughed. In her role, Millin worked with offenders on mental health, medication, sexual trauma and suicide prevention. “It was a very high-stress job, but very gratifying.”
To cope with the stress, Millin started painting. It had been about three decades since she had sat at an easel, but, before long, she found herself taking her paintbrushes to the prison every morning, cleaning them after painting long into the night.
“There’s a psychological plane to every painting. It’s a puzzle. You have to figure it out. That’s why I was attracted to working with people in crisis. There’s always a way to figure out a problem — and the same thing with the paintings. Art is a reflection of life.”
Millin retired early from her career as a psychologist to paint full-time. Photo submitted
At the prison, Millin helped establish an inmate art program, taught by Des Moines master painter Mary Muller. As she saw the art program benefit the women, Millin decided she wanted to take classes, too, and began learning from Muller on the weekends.
“I just really tapped into the other side of my brain, and it was just, like, ‘Oh, I can’t go back there,’ ” she said. “So I retired early to paint full-time.”
The career change wasn’t intimidating. Even before retiring, Millin had been selling paintings out of the trunk of her car.
“I would paint the neighbors’ yards, their flowers or something,” she said. “And I’d show it to them, and they’d buy it.”
Now, Millin has works scattered across the Des Moines metro: at the Cheese Bar on Ingersoll Avenue, by the bar at the Sixth Avenue Holiday Inn, and in the rehab center at Mercy Hospital.
An early project titled the “Saturday Night Series” highlighted local restaurants around Des Moines. As she worked, Millin met many immigrants and refugees among the kitchen and wait staff. She started listening to their stories and said it opened up “a whole new area” for her. Yearning to travel and provide aid but bound by her age — Millin is 75 — all she could do was paint.
“Crossing to Safety” is part of Millin’s nine-painting series, “Finding Refuge,” on display at HoQ Restaurant through Sept. 15, then Zanzibar’s Coffee Sept. 17 to Oct. 20. Photo submitted
“I believe people are good, and we’re conditioned to be afraid of one another by false divisions that are imposed from the top,” Millin said. This year, the number of displaced people worldwide surpassed 100 million for the first time. Millin said she hopes her latest series, titled “Finding Refuge,” shows that refugees are just like “you and me.” Ultimately, she’d like her work to prompt people to slow down and think, creating a dialogue.
“We’re scrolling on our phones all the time. You see all these images of the refugee children, but then it’s the next crisis you’re scrolling to, and you forget about it,” she said. “These [paintings] are permanent images. They bring permanence to this time in history.”
“Finding Refuge” will be displayed at HoQ Restaurant, 303 E. Fifth St., through Sept. 15, then Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure, 2723 Ingersoll Ave., from Sept. 17 to Oct. 20. See more of Millin at www.pmillin.com. ♦
