How a Napa artist revived the Napa Valley Mustard Celebration
One Napa artist and intrepid entrepreneur, Jessel Miller, led the way for the revival of the Napa Valley Mustard Celebration, which began on Saturday and will run through March 28 at multiple events.
The original festival began in 1993 as a way to draw visitors to the valley in the quiet winter months, and to shine a spotlight on the humble mustard plants, grown as a cover crop, that fill the landscape with yellow flowers.
Miller designed many of the posters for the annual event. “When it passed away in 2011, it was heartbreaking,” Miller said. “It really honored all the artists, the restaurants, the hotels, [and] the community itself. It brought so much commerce to the community.”
In 2022, Miller led a grassroots effort to bring back the winter with a new name, The Napa Valley Mustard Celebration, since the original name, The Napa Valley Mustard Festival, wasn’t available. Bougetz Cellars was one of the first local businesses to support her idea.
The fledgling festival got a boost when it was covered by Travel + Leisure Magazine.
It’s the first time the Napa Valley has had a county-wide festival, with events from American Canyon to Calistoga.
“I’m thrilled that that’s kind of the new branch on my tree of kind of pulling together the community,” said Miller. “My goal is to make January, February, [and] March a bustling time with all the events that we have going on in the Mustard Celebration.”
It kicked off on Jan. 17 with an event that featured an art show and an opportunity to shop for mustard inspired products.
Featured is the poster for this year’s event, created by Paul Youngman, chosen in juried competition.
Next is the Yountville Art and Mustard Celebration, returning Jan. 22. “You will be thrilled by the presentation of the food and the amazing branded vendors that are going to be there. It always has great excitement,” Miller said. “I love that event. I look forward to it every year.”
Miller hopes people take away the fact that the Mustard Celebration is growing.
“We are becoming much more successful as far as adding more branded vendors,” said Miller. “I think it’s becoming such an exciting, powerful event. The fact that we’re the only one in the world that has a three-month-long event; that’s a great honor for our valley.
“It brings in the commerce,” continued Miller. “I’m hoping that we can extend this concept to the hotels. Silverado Country Club purchased wine and posters, and when you book a room during that time, that’s the gift you get for the room. I’m hoping all the hotels get on board and start supporting the branded vendors. I think the sky’s the limit. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
Bill La Liberte is the executive director of the Downtown Napa Association.
La Liberte was part of the creation of the Mustard Celebration finale, a two-day tasting event with art, food, and wine, last year at the CIA at Copia. The ticketed event featured approximately 33 artists, 25 restaurants, and 25 tasting rooms. This year, a one-day event at Copia will wrap up the festival on March 28. There are plans for a VIP reception for just the art on March 27.
La Liberte had high praise for Miller. “She has the biggest heart and cares more about community and art and this Mustard Celebration than anybody I’ve met,” he said. “Once she gets something in her mind, she’s definitely dead set on making it happen…I think that’s a fantastic quality and I love that about her.
“Every time you meet Jessel, it’s something you remember,” said La Liberte. “[There’s] nothing that stands out individually, but one thing I will say is that no matter what happens, whether you’re meeting just to go over a quick budget or whatever it is, you always sit down, and it’s like you’re walking into her home, her gallery. She has beverages for you. She has baked goods for you. It’s just such a welcoming experience to work with Jessel.
“I think the most important thing is that without Jessel, there would be no Mustard Celebration,” continued La Liberte. “She has singlehandedly resurrected this. She was very involved when it was the Mustard Festival years back, but she is the soul driver and the guiding force behind bringing this whole thing back, and she’s worked tirelessly with the different chambers in the valley as well as the Downtown Napa Association to just keep this thing going at expense to herself physically and financially and she does it without complaining a bit.”
Julie Eppich is an art director and the co-producer of the Mustard Celebration. “I feel people should really be honoring Jessel with gratitude and appreciation for what she’s bringing to the community and reinfounding this new celebration,” said Eppich. “People [should] know her drive has brought this back to life, and she’s open to teamwork makes the dream work.”
Eppich can’t pinpoint one interaction with Miller that stands out.
“That’s hard for me to say because every time I’m in Jessel’s presence, it’s her warmth, her hospitality, her attention to letting people know they’re heard and listened to,” said Eppich. “I would say they’re all equally impactful and powerful to me every time, whether it’s a casual meeting or an event or she and I just even catching up over the phone. It’s her warmth and hospitality and her sincere interest in other humans.”
Samantha Holland, the Parks and Recreation director for Yountville, partners with Miller and helps organize the Yountville Art and Mustard Celebration. Holland fondly remembers Representative Mike Thompson giving Miller an award at a past Art and Mustard Celebration in Yountville. The award recognized Miller’s hard work in reinvigorating the Mustard Celebration.
“She’s really pushed forward to make this successful and get it going and get people excited and involved,” said Holland.
It might be hard to believe, but Miller was extremely shy as a child. Art has been a safe haven for her throughout her life.
“I’m more Picasso-esque than most of the artists that I represent,” said Miller. “I do so many different things. I also teach classes. I’m constantly learning and doing new work every day.”
Originally from Canada, she moved to Florida with her family and after studying art, came on her own to California. She first worked as a portrait artist. Her first show at the Museum of Modern Art featured portraits of famous people but as she continued to grow as an artist, her art changed.
“I have transitioned since then and am doing all different subject matters, and basically, I opened the gallery for that reason, because, in most galleries, the art that you see you recognize as that person, and because I was not recognizable, because I changed so much, I opened a gallery basically to be able to do all the things I want to do.”
Miller creates many different types of art, painting everything from realistic to abstract, which is what she teaches.
“I learned as a young child that you have to be very focused and centered,” said Miller. “It’s sort of like a ballerina and a modern dancer. I’m both, so I knew that I had to be a technician, which is what I am as an artist, and I learn to do very realistic and very abstract work, and having that stretch really has landed me in the place that I am now, which is I can paint anything.”
She added, “You give me a subject matter, and I can paint it and I think that’s really what I try to teach my students.
“It’s great to be realistic, but there’s something in the abstraction that you can bring into your work, and then you find who you are as an artist,” continued Miller. “As long as you’ve got that stretch going and that ability to go from realistic to abstract, all the things in between make you become that artist that you are.”
“There are stages of my life that all have a piece that, I would say, honors that period of my life,” said Miller.
When Miller opened the Jessel Gallery in Napa, 40 years ago, she said there were 16 other local galleries that no longer exist.
“I think the reason we’ve stayed in business is something that came from a nun that came through the gallery,” said Miller. “She walked in here, and she went up to the greeting cards, and she said, ‘You know, we don’t have a lot of money. We’re nuns, but we send all our wealthy clients to you.’
“I think the fact that we have a $5 greeting card and a $50,000 painting really is the reason why we have weathered everything from 9/11, fires, floods, [and] earthquakes,” Miller said. because we try to cover our bases and we maintain our prices and I think the high quality…We really try to cater to all levels of wealth.”
Miller hopes people feel at home when they visit the gallery.
“I want them to feel comfortable and welcomed,” said Miller. “Most galleries don’t have sofas [or] fresh-made cookies that I make every day or hot cider. The idea that I’m trying to emulate in my gallery that I think might be a little bit different than a lot is, number one, I’m an artist, so I understand it from that perspective. I’m a businesswoman also, but I want you to feel as though you’re home. Art needs to feel like it sits down behind a sofa so you can see what it looks like in your home, and that’s the goal.”
It’s also her goal to invite visitors to try their hand at creating art. “If somebody’s in town and they don’t want to drink in the morning, they can come to our Friday morning class or our Monday evening class.
“It offers them something else to do, but it really grounds them in the fact that we have this wonderful opportunity to land in a class. You don’t have to have any experience when you come as a visitor. I provide all the supplies. I think it’s a fantastic idea. If I were going to a community and this were offered, I’d take it.”
To learn more about Miller, visit jesselmiller.com. To learn more about the Mustard Celebration, visit napavalleymustardcelebration.com. To learn more about the Jessel Gallery, visit jesselgallery.com.
Here are upcoming events in the Mustard Celebration:
• Jan. 22–Yountville Photo Finale opening and Mustard Celebration
• Feb. 7/8–Napa – Jessel Gallery NVMC Art Show
• Feb. 14– Calistoga – Collings and Legere Art Gallery
• Feb. 27 –St. Helena – Chamber Welcome Center
• Mar. 7/8–Napa – Jessel Gallery artist demonstrations
• Mar. 14–First Street Plaza – Art Around Napa • Mar. 21–American Canyon Chamber – RD Winery
• Mar. 26–Yountville – Photo Finale closing
• Mar. 27/28–Copia – Do Napa NVMC season finale
