This Page contains Images of Sculptures made by Royden Mills chosen for Major Public Art Commission, Public Art Installations, and Significant Public and Private art Collections Including: The Art Gallery of Alberta, The City of Edmonton Public Art Division, Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta in Camrose Alberta, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, India Artists Network Promoting Indian Culture, The City of Red Deer Public Art Department, The Kelley Ramsey Enbridge Art Collection, The Alberta Foundation for The Arts, The Odette Sculpture Park in Windsor Ontario, The Collection of Stan and Silvia Stroup Vermont, Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton New Jersey, The University of Lethbridge Sculpture Collection, The Canmore Hospital, State University of New York Plattsburg, Qualico Commercial Collection at EPCOR Tower, Big Rock Sculpture Park at Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock Arkansas, and the Collection of Len and Rianne Switzer.
https://www.youraga.ca/ The Art Gallery of Alberta is a part of the history of Alberta and is the oldest Art Gallery in Alberta ( begun as the Edmonton Art Gallery. The Sculpture was purchased with funds from the Mitchel Endowment and my thanks to Catherine Crowston and John and Maggie Mitchel for their encouragement and support over my entire career.
“Resonant Progression (site two of Resonant Progression)
Terwillegar Park City of Edmonton International Public Art Commission winner.
“Resonant Progression” City of Edmonton International Public Art Competition winner site one “Potential” and Site two “Resonant Point” human made structure holding up natural forms. The sites invite as places to sit and contemplate the nature around and the distance between the three sites. Each location offers analogue sounds From the surrounding natural park and the distances from which those sounds travel.
“Resonant Progression (site three)” titled “Beyond Listening”: natural forms held up and tied by human structures in a position near the great North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton Canada. It features an analogue listening device that aims to collect sound out towards and across the water in reference to the Doctors Terwillegar and Oleskiw who helped call Europeans from over seas to this region. The land here would have been used by the First Nations People long before Europeans ever thought of building their systems of social structures here. Hopefully our contemporary people might use these sculptures in contemplative ways to enjoy the sites and sounds around them in ways that might respect nature in ways that those First Nations people would also find pleasing.
Potential
Resonant Progression, site one “Potential”
Terwillegar Park Edmonton International Public Art Commission Winner
Site Three: “Beyond Listening” at “Resonant Progression” Terwillegar Park Edmonton Canada
Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta Centennial Commission in Camrose Canada, as used to celebrate special occasions in ceremonial ringing of a component bell
Beyond a Certain Phrase
what words, what tools, what knowledge, what phrases remain true and pertinent over time? Nature in the form of a beautiful large stone is held high and supported by two forms that could be books. The stone is held above a bench and the books have small mysterious holes low near the ground. What tool fits these? What purpose? The next set of forms is a natural stone piercing the book and the etchings in the surface are available to take paper rubbings from. Art from art is a nice micro/moment but what are these etchings of? What need? What pertinence is there to Camrose? I was born 500 meters from the site of this sculpture. The last component is nature ( stone ) holding human made form. As if the Uncertain Phrase is leading back to a respect for the wonderful mysteries and incomprehensible knowledge we crave of nature.
“No Longer Between” Public Art Commission Bhubaneswar, Odishia India , Rahul Bante and Royden Mills
Detail from India
28’x 15’x 10’ welded steel and concrete with three trees growing trough the Red Deer Line sculpture on Alexander Way in Red Deer Canada. The south facing plane warms and retains heat encouraging greater growth in the large tree. Like tree that grow through no longer moving human machinery the train like form is grounded and very much not moving. This City of Red Deer Centennial national public art commission winning sculpture was done to pay respect to Alexander who was a railway engineer who came to love Red Deer and put down roots there abandoning his life on the rail.
“Morning Bell”. Limited Competition winner; Commission for Kelly Ramsey Building Enbridge Tower. An opportunity for business leaders with power and pressure to help our world to face the lobby of their building and ring a long resonating bell and enjoy a contemplative moment before, during or after a long day. The physical certainty of our existence and our actions fill a space for a certain duration and then fade. What consequence, what purpose and perhaps…what inspiration for others is left behind? Asian philosophy is thousands of years teaching humility and reflection and certainly North American leaders wisely enjoy a contemplative moment or two each day. The forms and sources of material all originate from the city where the sculpture was made but hopefully imply connections to mysteries and satisfying questions that resist simple identification in ways that are long enjoyable and so perhaps infinitely satisfying..
“Bassinet”. Collection of The Alberta Foundation for the Arts 15 years at home in front of Grant MacEwan University…First Exhibited at an Edmonton Contemporary Artist Society Exhibition annual show and then in “Transfigure” at the Edmonton Art Gallery
“Almost Whole”. Collection of the City of Edmonton, Belgravia Sculpture Park
“Fugue” Collection of The Alberta Foundation for The Arts
The.formal musical arrangement of a musical fugue in steel and quite beautiful surface micro moments. Long available to the public at Canada Place in Edmonton.
“From Ground to Ask the Sky”. Odette Sculpture Park Windsor Ontario. This sculpture was a self funded realization of a model presented for a commission at the Winspear Centre Edmonton, as “Fugue” was as well. Comments reached me from the jury that reflected disbelief that a young unproven artist could even complete a sculpture of the scale of “Fugue” or “Ground to Ask The Sky”. “Inner Key” was also started as a model for the Winspear commission and was completed as a human scale sculpture that years later Mr. Stan Stroup purchased from Sculpturesite Gallery in SanFrancisco. The visual concert of this sculpture is the sky above and an important practical concern was to make a contemplative space where people could safely enter and not be trapped while visiting the concert of the sky above.
Providence Rhode Island, Convergence Public art Festival, curated by Mr Bob Rizzo.
“Inner Key” began as a model for the Winspear commission that was to allow a long narrow walkway for people to eventually arrive at a chamber open to the visual concert that is the prairie sky, but I blew the model sky into an 8’ long real scale sculpture.. it was shown at the University of Alberta and then at Sculpturesite Gallery in Sanfrancisco where it was acquired by the Stan and Sylvia Stroup Collection in Vermont.
“Inside Elevation “. Exactly as tight to enter as my body could bear. The interior has three small seats, one for the last three members of my childhood family. The very small contemplative space has a hidden trumpet sound that rises outside. To spend any time within and then emerge is to be “reset” about how great it is to be reborn into the expanse and liberty of the outside world.
It belongs to the collection of the world renown “Grounds for Sculpture” in Hamilton New Jersey, USA south of New York City.
“Inside a Dissonant Society” Collection of The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, University of Lethbridge.
State University of New York at Plattsburgh sculpture collection.
“Umi Na Shizuka” was shown at Sculpturesite Gallery in San Francisco and acquired by Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock Arkansas. It was made after an inspiring swim in the North Pacific Ocean and viewing plants and animals beneath the surface that were hidden from view until one plunged beneath the surface. The sculpture describes a kind of sea flower that opened up to three times its normal relaxed diameter to swallow a desired object as it floated too closely. Sculpture could be more than a surface passage, it could be about what lays beneath the surface skin. It could be about the Möbius strip that takes the outside through the inside and implies how connected and interdependent we are to things that might cause us fear.
“Hope” was shown at Sculpture by invitation at the Shaw Conference Centre and at Borden Park and has been Acquired by Rianne and Len Switzer. The sculpture puts on a pedestal an object that in some ways is like an old tool that one finds but can’t understand the purpose of. Have we forgotten ways, tools or places to apply human leverage? This sculpture resists gravity holding itself up as if there was an energy within. Is there energy within human made things? Is there energy within our current circumstances? There is hope. It’s a very useful tool, no?
This Page is about Sculpture that Royden Mills made for selected various major Public Art commissions and installations of Art.
“Guardian” Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection
Canmore Hospital, Dedicated to the Nurses by Arlen Bruce former Manager of the Operating Room and my sister who donated the sculpture. The sculptural forms were influenced by a small but significant Oceanic sculpture brought back by an older brother who served in the Canadian Navy in the 50’s and this sculpture was the first sculpture I made in my first Canadian sculpture studio after living and operating a sculpture studio in Hokkaido Japan. I had a solo exhibition of 30 sculptures in Shikaoi Hokkaido Japan that we’re influenced strongly by Kanji, Ikebana, and philosophies of Shinto that seemed to carry much potential towards things having a far deeper but ultimately humble and so meaningful connection to being.
“Onisama”. In Japanese means honourable older brother
much older siblings seem mysterious and certainly guardians but also slightly contained and with much going on beneath the surface. Do they stand on guard; and shelter us ? “Yes” of course but if they let us “In” we might discover rooms and visions that give views for reflection on the reasons the family and even a community turned out as it did. Do we get in? What if we climb up and within the small upper chamber? The drawer, the ladder and the view through a small key hole window? Is it merely a narrow point of view or a focus unwavering ?
collection of the city of Red Deer, donated by Margaret Schroeder.
“No Longer Between”. Collection of Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock Arkansas.
It was completed as the funeral for early mentor. Joseph Reeder’s funeral was underway as I went to visit John Hock at Franconia Sculpture Park and I was grieving as I made this huge two component sculpture in three weeks from scrap steel. .
Simultaneously my own mum was very sick and only somebody like Joe Reeder would miss being home to go for a major art opportunity rather than be home grieving and tending to loved ones. I started building while “listening” to what I was discovering in the forms that were emerging and the two components came to very much be “one”… with a place for the audience to view the other. And at the end, as I sat there and asked myself what is this experience essentially about, I was forced to feel that the larger 10’ tall component was flamboyant and seemed frozen in the middle of digging a hole. Stalled in a poised extroverted grand gesture, it reminded me of Joe Reeder…and as I sat looking out of the window viewfinder across the distance it was just how I felt about my life observing him from a distance,…he was larger than life, active and gregarious, superhuman in strength and fortitude and me in awe of such people…an observer and a witness. And then I was hit with the parallel between that and my mum’s relationship to my dad who was very much like Joe in many ways. Maybe some other humans know relationships like that…maybe it is a monument to witnessing a dynamo? Can a person be a structure in our lives? Can we feel like witnesses? Can a young artist ( as I was at the time) make something that is so useful to understanding his life and still have that art work hold meaning to others? So much money time, physical labour! But the process came from not only accepting Sir Anthony Caro’s openness and the philosophical lessons learned in Japan, It was also an awakening made available to me by renown Canadian sculptor Catherine Burgess who spoke to me about letting one’s sculpture have meaning and using forms to understand one’s own search for meaning in life itself.
“Want” Collection of Qualico Developments Commercial
Epcor Tower Edmonton.
how do you make an expression of something like the feeling of wanting without being literal and obvious? Can a parachute take flight and float gently in the wind ? Can to carry us gently from high and uncertain to landing safely grounded? So, in this exhibition, I made a machine that floated such wood and paper forms via exertion and human powered current of air, and then in a different part of the gallery I presented this larger question. If the energy to float the little ones took all the energy one had in their body to float…what would it take to float this huge steel and wooden one? Does anyone else ever feel like what they want and what they Hope are two very different feelings? I hoped so , and was very pleased with this sculpture. I give credit to time watching my friend Sean Caulfield work because he seems to have faith that what is surreal can carry more meaning than merely an entertainment. Sean works very hard and commits a lot of labour to his studio. And he seems to make poetic visual references that avoid being read literally. They open connotations that are available to others! His work refers to things we know in our everyday lives but resist being only stale depictions. These are my interpretations and not his words but that is what I love about his exceptional body of work and that feeling is something I strive to offer others through my work.
thanks to Ken Cantor, David Candler, Hideki Yamakawa and Carson Tarnasky… and of course more than anyone else…Linda Mills, my love and inspiration for making this all come to be.
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Tricycle Artist Group : Catherine Burgess, Walter Jule, Royden Mills Public Art Installation “ Prairie Sound Garden” Sherwood Park Alberta. Broadmoar Park
Shizuka Na Umi at Sculpturesite Gallery SanFrancisco now permanently at Pulaski Technical College Little Rock USA
Fugue: Proposed First Iteration Full SizedSculpture for the Winspear Centre Public Art Commission, acquired by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
