If serendipity is an occurrence of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way, then that’s the theme of Yavapai College’s recent art gallery opening, when a renowned ceramic artist and art professor were honored together.

An evening of art and remembrance celebrated the life and art of the late ceramic artist Don Reitz and the legacy of the late Yavapai College art professor Patty McMullen-Mikles at Yavapai College’s Verde Art Gallery on Thursday, Sept. 30.

Over 250 guests attended the commemoration of renaming the Verde gallery in honor of McMullen-Mikles, who founded and directed the Verde campus gallery during her 20-year tenure with the Yavapai College Art Department. She died in 2015. Her former students and colleagues have described her as a “fiercely dedicated champion” of the college’s art programs.

Kelley Foy, director of the newly named gallery, said that throughout the evening she heard many inspiring stories about McMullen-Mikles and is equally proud that her legacy will continue.

“What is beautiful about the renaming [of the gallery] and the continuation of her legacy is really serendipi­tous,” Foy said. “Her class­room at one point was in the actual gallery space, so I feel that this is so lovely that they took the time to name the gallery after her. She was very beloved.”

The evening continued with a display of never-before-seen work from Reitz, who lived in Clarkdale. Much of the “Follow your Bliss” exhibi­tion included work from the private collection of Reitz’s son, Brent, and his daughter, Donna, as well as ceramic pieces that had been recently discovered in a storage unit. Several other pieces no one knew existed were found in a New Jersey basement.

“It was really spectacular to see one of the lost pieces — the ‘tea-stack’ — that was in the center of the gallery. Don did a workshop in Pennsylvania and a friend had stored some of those pieces in his dusty old base­ment in New Jersey, where it sat for 20 years,” Reitz’s assistant and protégé Ben Roti said.

Apparently, those pieces were never fired. Another ceramic artist, Chris Gustin, who had worked with Reitz in the past and visited Reitz Ranch in Clarkdale, helped the family acquire the work. In addition, Gustin had the unfinished pieces bisque fired at several kilns that Reitz used, including the Anagama kiln at Reitz Ranch.

“After seeing that particular piece it was really special to be a part of that history,” Roti said of the missing tea-stack. “Seeing pieces in the gallery that were from the time that I was out there [Reitz Ranch], which Donna had in her collection, and then several of the older Sara Series pieces … are some of my favorites.”

“There is a beautiful jar, and the shield piece that is quintessential for that time period,” Roti said of the Sara Series work. I think all the ceramic pieces work nicely together and definitely span the generations of his work … from the ’70s, ’80s and the most recent wood firings in the ’90s and 2000.”

“It was pretty neat to walk through and see those things in there,” Roti said.

The Sara Series was a body of Reitz’s work born in adversity. In 1982, Reitz was seriously injured in a car accident, and at the same time, his 5-year-old niece Sara began cancer treatment. Reitz and his niece began exchanging drawings. He transformed the simplicity of her work into his own; using clay as a canvas he began painting with vivid colors and childlike designs. At least two of the pieces are in this exhibition.

“This show is about cele­brating my dad, in a way that I can get to share with the community,” Donna Reitz said. “My brother and I get to share his beautiful story. Each piece is different, all so personal. It’s important to me, to share how much my dad loved the Verde Valley. Artists or not, he loved it here. It’s time to show what that crazy artist was doing in the middle of nowhere.”

In another serendipitous moment, Foy shared her encounters with Reitz. Foy has been the gallery director at Yavapai College for the last five years. Prior to that, she owned a restaurant in Old Town Cottonwood.

“I met him when I was a student in ceramics at Northern Arizona University and would come out to the workshops and events there,” Foy said. “Over the years, I got back in touch with him because he was a regular at my restaurant in Cottonwood and he would invite me to help out with the kilns during the firings. I was brought back into the fold and I would say to Don, ‘I am not working in clay much,’ and he would say, ‘Kelley, we are clay people; we are always going to be clay people.’”

“He was welcoming and created this environment and I started to do more clay work because of Don — he was really inspiring and I feel honored to have known him,” Foy said.

In yet another seren­dipitous moment in 2009, Reitz created a 6- by 4-foot ceramic mural while he was teaching at the University of Iowa.

Coincidentally, Ben Roti was attending the University of Iowa, and he and his ceramics instructor, Mat Rude, disassembled the mural, not knowing where it was going or that they were getting it to the final resting place. While Roti was working at the ranch as Reitz’s assistant between 2010 and 2014, he recalled seeing the mural displayed on the floor of the gallery. The mural was housed at the Reitz Ranch until Reitz gifted the mural to Yavapai College’s Southwest Wine Center, a teaching winery that was under construc­tion at the time at the Verde Valley Campus.

It wasn’t until 2020 that Roti was contacted about the mural because of his connection to Reitz. Roti suggested that the college invite Rude to piece together the installation.

In May, the two Reitz apprentices, other artists and teachers spent five days assembling and cementing the mural that now hangs at the east wall of the Southwest Wine Center.

Inside the gallery, Roti’s work was also displayed, making a huge statement regarding the relationship between Reitz and Roti.

“I have a couple of pieces in there — yes, he is a huge inspiration to me and my work. It would be hard not to be under his presence” Roti said. “I was honored to be there with him in his studio and to see his older work that I have never even seen before. And to see the same marks and quality of lines — the things that I scribe in my own work — is just an inspiration to see all those pieces together.

“He was a special person in my life,” Roti said of Reitz. “He would always say to me while living at the ranch, if this wasn’t working for me to let him know, and I would tell him if he reaches his limit with me to let me know as well. He responded ‘No, you can’t leave. You have to be here.’ I am very fortunate for that time.”

“The synchronicity of all life is amazing to me — the viticulture, wine tasting, the outside patio, 13 acres of vines, a skyline view. That building wasn’t there when dad donated the mural,” Reitz said. “It is quite a big deal.”