It is with great sadness that the family of Stephen James Millner announces his passing at his home in Yardley, PA on Tuesday, May 7 at the age of 76 after a long struggle with amyloidosis, an incurable bone marrow disease. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Steve was born in Ventura, California to Dr. Bernard and Josephine (Hinckley) Millner, who predeceased him. He grew up in Trenton, New Jersey and graduated from Trenton Central High School in 1965. He received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Yale University in 1969, where he played clarinet in the Yale University Precision Marching Band. After many years of pursuing his art career, he attended law school at the University of Maine, Portland, graduating in 1978, and practicing law in New Hampshire, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He received a Master of Legal Studies from Wayne State University in Detroit in 1983.
Steve eventually settled in Yardley, PA. Although he was a successful attorney, he never stopped creating art and involving himself in many art groups and shows. He was the first president of the very successful Artists of Yardley organization, where he served for five years. He began his art endeavors as a photographer, printmaker, and metal sculptor and expanded his style by creating mixed media and assemblage pieces and greeting cards. His works have been shown in galleries in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. His art has been on the cover of such magazines as Prime Number, U. S. 1 Worksheets, and Meadowland Review. The covers of the following books feature his art or art arrangement: his wife Marie Kane’s Survivors in the Garden and Beauty, You Drive a Hard Bargain; Israel Halpern’s The Way This River Rewinds Itself and the anthologies The Questions Are Enough, a 2009 collection of poems from Dr. Christopher Bursk’s Master Poetry class at Bucks County Community College, and Making Our Own Light, Bucks County Poets Laureate 35th Anniversary issue. His art accompanies each poem in his wife’s book, Persephone’s Truth. Steve also designed posters for the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA, the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia, the Wildwood International Kite Festival in New Jersey, and the Wright Flight Centennial Kite Festival in North Carolina. Steve and Marie were the joint recipients of the Bucks County Muse Award in 2017 for contributions to the Bucks County literary community.
Steve was an accomplished guitar player and enjoyed classical and Spanish guitar music as well as the music of the Grateful Dead. He was a committed fan of the group and relished playing their music.
He is survived by his wife, Marie Kane, two children, Philip (Melissa) Millner and Anna (Jeff) Ravasio, three stepchildren, Elizabeth (Stephen Hoppe) Kane, Sarah (Stephen) Pratta, and Thomas (Jessica Harris) Kane, three siblings, Fred (Sandra), Marjorie, and Gogi Millner, four grandchildren, five nephews and nieces, and many cousins.
A burial service was held on Monday, May 13, 2024, at Fountain Lawn Memorial Park, Ewing, NJ. A life celebration will be scheduled for June. To be notified of the time, place and date, please request information from Fred Millner at flmillner@gmail.com.
Shop Available Works by Stephen Millner
• Artsy
The Japanese words Honne (what we truly believe in our soul) and Tatemae (what we pretend to believe so that others will like us) have special relevance for the artist. We are often programmed in childhood toward Tatemae—to alter our creative aspirations so as to be popular rather than to give unfettered freedom to our creative inspirations. I am grateful to my parents, who encouraged me to express my creativity honestly (Honne), by not imposing value judgments that might make my art more “normal” or “popular.”
My path as an artist, then, has been to make art that is true to my creative inspiration. As a mixed media artist, I utilize a wide variety of materials, most of them recycled: discarded wrapping paper, newspaper and magazine clippings, maps, advertising, photographs, envelopes, signs, stickers, stamps, tags, hardware, scrap wood, etc. Often, a new piece of art begins when an item grabs my attention and demands to be used as the beginning of a mixed media work.
When this occurs, the item or image becomes the seed of a work of art. This seed may trigger a memory, make an association, or ask a question—taking on meaning beyond its literal components.
Often, the developing work of art will put the item in a new context and expand or alter its meaning. Each additional element becomes more critical in terms of color, balance, design, and visual interest, until the work is complete. Of course, other choices are made to finish the work: organization, composition, and color come into play. In fact, the initial inspiration for the art may play only a minor role in the completed work, or may even be obliterated by subsequent layers. How fascinating that my completed art is inspired by a small piece of paper or ephemera. Even though this first element placed on the canvas may, in the end, be unimportant compositionally, as the original inspiration for the work, it lays claim to the art’s totality and meaning.
Born in Ventura, California, Stephen Millner grew up in New York City and Trenton, New Jersey. He received BA in Fine Arts from Yale University, and earned graduate degrees from the University of Maine and Wayne State University. At Yale, he studied photography with Walker Evans and John T. Hill, printmaking with Gabor Peterdi, and graphic design with Herbert Matter. Other influences at Yale were artist Jack Tworkov, art historian Vincent Scully, and cultural icon Buckminster Fuller. He began his art career as a photographer, printmaker, and metal sculptor. Millner studied sculpture with New Hope, PA artist, Harry Balmer. His works have been shown in galleries in New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Millner’s photography is characterized by bold graphic elements and ambiguous imagery. His mixed media work makes use of original photographs, childhood memorabilia, maps, postal ephemera, and magazine and newspaper images, often with witty and humorous juxtapositions. Some of his work concerns political issues. For five years, Millner was the founding president of Artists of Yardley (artistsofyardley.org), bringing the group from twenty members to over one hundred, and organizing its various community and art show events that continue today. He is married to poet Marie Kane, (Bucks County Poet Laureate, 2006); they reside in Yardley, Pennsylvania. His website is stephenmillner.com. He also manages an online gallery called Summer of Love Posters. Some of Millner’s artistic influences are: El Anatsui, Harry Balmer, Nick Bantock, Walker Evans, Claudia McGill, Robert Rauschenberg, Zoe Strauss, and Andy Warhol.
2000
First Prize, Yardley Canal Festival Poster Contest
2012
Kane, Marie, Survivors in the Garden, Big Table Publishing Company, Boston, MA, 2012
(cover photo)
Making Our Own Light, Bucks County Community College, 2012
(cover photo)
Halpern, Israel, The Way This River Rewinds Itself, Manifestation Glow Press, 2012
(cover design)
2011
Meadowlands Review, Winter, 2011
Prime Number Issue #7, April-June, 2011
(cover photo)
2009
The Questions Are Enough: BCCC Master Poetry Class Anthology, Bucks County Community College, 2009
(cover photo and 24 interior photographs)
2003
Bucks County Writer, V.4, #3, Spring, 2003
2004 - 2008
President, Artists of Yardley, Yardley, PA
2001 - 2002
Miniature Kite Exhibit, 2002 Wildwood International Kite Festival, Wildwood, NJ
2001
Designed and published, Water Poems by Marie Kane
2000 – 2006
Graphic Designer/Workshop Presenter, Sky Festivals, Inc., Morrisville, PA
2000 - 2004
Poster Designer, Trocadero Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
2000 - 2002
The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA
Miniature Kite Exhibit, Ben’s Garden Restaurant
1999
Miniature Kite Exhibit, American Kitefliers Association, Annual Convention, Muncie, IN
1976 - 1978
Graphic Designer, Greater Portland Transit District, Portland, ME
2008
ARTisZEN Arts, Lambertville, NJ
2007
Gallery at Afton Pond, Yardley, PA
2012
Inspiration, Off the Wall Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition
Autumn Invitational, Off the Wall Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Member Exhibition, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA
Ties that Bind, Off the Wall Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition
Member Show, Artists of Yardley, Yardley, PA
Charter Member Exhibition, Philadelphia Sculpture Gym, Philadelphia, PA
2nd Annual Photography Exhibit, Artists of Yardley, Yardley, PA
2011
Intimate Worlds, Off the Wall Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition
1st Annual Photography Exhibit, Artists of Yardley, Yardley, PA
2010
Black & White, Off the Wall Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Exhibition
2009
Picasso Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Juried Exhibition
Threads, Gallery 125,Trenton, NJ
Juried Exhibition
A Feast for the Eyes, Gallery 125,Trenton, NJ
Juried Exhibition
17th Annual Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibition, Phillips’ Mill, New Hope, PA
Juried Exhibition
2008
Under $250, Mixed Media Gallery, Doylestown, PA
Juried Exhibition
Artists of Yardley Annual Exhibit, Riverrun Gallery, Lambertille NJ
Mermaids, Mixed Media Gallery, Doylestown, PA
Juried Exhibition
16th Annual Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibition, Phillips’ Mill, New Hope, PA
Juried Exhibition
2007
Spring Exhibit, Gallery 125, Trenton, NJ
Juried Exhibition
15th Annual Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibition, Phillips’ Mill, New Hope, PA
Juried Exhibition
2006
Small Works, Gallery 125, Trenton, NJ
Juried Exhibition
Food, New Hope Arts at Triumph Brewing Co., New Hope, PA
Juried Exhibition
