As Anna Millea struggled with cancer, she threw away her old rules and illusions
By Katie Pelech
Photographs by Ashley Heifner
Anna Millea dispensed with the literal more than a decade ago. Poised eagerly midstep on the corporate ladder, she had a revelation. “Living in the health-care industry was a lie. It forced me to interact with people in ways that were not authentic,” she explains, marveling at the naïveté of her younger self. “I kind of forgot who I was.”
Today the St. Louis native is ensuring that neither she nor anyone else is left with any doubt as to who she is. Last summer, she opened the Millea Gallery and Studio in the Central West End, providing a home for the vibrant furniture her identity is splayed across in expressive, colorful bursts. Although she’s been developing the collection for almost 11 years, it was her struggle with breast cancer that forced the gallery’s coalescence. The pieces, which include tables, benches, cabinets and mirrors, are divided into four groupings: Treatment, Introspect, Fifteen and One-of-a-Kind.
“‘Treatment’ is two-fold,” Millea says. “It is about how the wood is treated as a painterly surface, but it also has to do with how life treats us and how we have layers of stuff put on us that we have to deal with. It’s layers of color—each color is made up of numerous colors to get that density.” She pauses, glancing at the cabinet whose many coats lend it a tender texture, as though it’s been painstakingly swaddled. “To be really frank with you, I was very ill when I came up with that pattern. I was going through chemotherapy for late-stage breast cancer. Your brain does all kinds of glorious things for you when you get sick.”
“Introspect” came soon after, born of Millea’s impulse to probe her history in greater depth. Half-Japanese, Millea incorporated kanji characters into this line. They are vaguely legible to those familiar with the language, but the effect of her unique interpretations of the characters is the withholding of one part of herself even as she confesses another.
“Fifteen,” Millea’s current favorite, was inspired by a visit to the rock garden at the Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. The garden’s 15 boulders are placed in such a way that it is impossible to see them all at once. Only Buddha, who is perfection, will ever see them all simultaneously. In homage, every work in “Fifteen” bears 15 circles that cannot be seen all at once. The collection reminds Millea that the struggles of her former life—to be a perfect sister, a perfect daughter or a perfect employee—were futile.
“One-of-a-Kind” is a catchall category for impulsive pieces that deviate from the three core themes. It’s quite likely that the dabbling Millea allows herself in this form will give rise to her next body of work, but she’s reluctant to muse on future plans. “It sounds so corny to say I live for the day, but my husband and I have both been sick, and I tell him that if something happens tomorrow and I can’t keep doing this, I want to be able to say, ‘It was a great ride.’”
Millea Gallery | 4728 McPherson | 314-367-4200 | milleafurnishings.com
