Draft:Pati Mills


 * Notable for having received very substantial coverage in reliable independent sources over many years. FloridaArmy (talk) 02:50, 13 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, User:Hoary I added another cite to media coverage of this artist, her art work, and efforts to preserve it. Clearly notable per our guidelines. If you're interested in her husband feel free to add info on him. FloridaArmy (talk) 11:53, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

Pati Mills is an artist from Central Florida. She does ceramics, owns a craft store, and created a series of approximately 200 ceramic tile murals at Publix grocery stores in Florida.

California artist John Garth was hired to do mosaics for Publix after its founder George W. Jenkins saw his work in California. Publix rehired him and later turned to Mills who, by 1988, had done the murals for most of the Florida stores. His murals have been preserved in San Francisco.

Mills was self-taught. She created about 200 ceramic tile mosaics in Publix stores with themes ranging from food to topics of community interest. In Seminole, Florida her Publix mural features a cornucopia. She created a mural of the Old Florida capitol at a Publix in 1987. She worked the letters JADE into some of her murals, as on bottles of wine in one, a tribute using the first initial of her four children. Her murals have pictured waterside harbors, fruit, wine, and bread. The mural in Temple Terrace, Florida was photographed before the Publix building it adorned was torn down for a redevelopment project.

Some of the murals have been painted over. Others lost to demolition of older stores. Aficionados saved one of her murals at a Lakeland, Florida store before the Publix it adorned was demolished.