Chris Miller Was In
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SEPTEMBER 2020 VOLUME 26.9 THE BEACON OF THE STONE INDUstRY www.slipperyrockgazette.net recalled Chris, “and pretty much Perpetual Excellence at the by high school age I was consid- ering some kind of career as an Chris Miller Studio artist. I just wasn’t sure of what medium. Then, at about age sev- you’ve ever explored Peter J. Marcucci enteen, I started woodcarving. IF the beauty and charm Photos by Paul Rogers and “Pretty early in my career, I that’s found in small-town Chris Miller Studio opened my first studio at age Vermont, chances are you've eighteen in southern Vermont ex- visited Vermont's State Capitol, clusively doing wood sculpture. Montpelier. Located just a stone's Chris Miller is a seasoned vet- However, I had always wanted throw from Montpelier is the eran with hammer and chisel, and to try stone, and a few years after town of Calais, the home of the has been creating art since child- opening the studio I went to visit Kent Museum and the Robinson hood, and sculpture since 1976. the Vermont quarries. What’s the Saw Mill. It’s also the home of Mostly self-taught, Chris was old saying: ‘When in Rome, do the renowned Chris Miller Studio. influenced by many local artists, as the Romans’? So, after many including the late Billy Brauer years of doing exclusively wood, of Warren, Vermont, and the it was nice to try a different ma- late Lothar Werslin of Sandgate, terial and the techniques used to Vermont. It’s noteworthy to men- carve it, and it was a great mid-ca- tion that Chris’ studio is conve- reer challenge to add stone to the niently close to the Rock of Ages mix. There’s also a lot more work Quarry in Barre, Vermont, an area in the stone-sculpture world than known as the “Granite Capitol of in the wood-sculpture world.” the World” for well over a cen- tury. Chris loves the granite from Chris has a very extensive wood this area. Ask him about Barre working and carving room in his granite and he’ll readily tell you barn, as well as an area for stone, Above and right: Paradox, installed in Galveston, Texas. why he loves it. but is only set up to work on proj- “As far as thinking about the form and how I want to ects up to about one ton. When go about getting it, I start with a scale model, and by Lessons Learned, doing larger scale work, he uses the time I get to working the stone, that’s already been worked out.” Experience Earned two different studios in Barre that “For as far back as I can remem- Below: Heritage, Vermont Granite Museum he rents, he explained. ber, I had always been working in the direction of being an artist,” Please turn to page 2 Creating Synchronicity with EasedEdge taying on the forefront of cut- to the next level. An added bonus: ting-edge products these days it’s actually fun to use. Sain’t easy. From quarry to countertop, when it comes to tools, From Concept to Installation machines, and supplies, our industry EasedEdge was developed by is very diverse. In recent years, this software engineer Ben Strong, in diversity includes software. Recently, conjunction with Sarto Countertop the Slippery Rock Gazette had the owners Guiseppi Vanderputten (Sep) opportunity to review the new soft- and Robert Wiemann. Ben is a long- ware offering from EasedEdge. time software developer on many levels, while Sep Vanderputten and Without going into too many details, Robert Wiemann are longtime fab- let’s just say that the demo was very rication experts. All three men are informative. The app interface is col- co-owners of EasedEdge, and be- orful, well thought out, intuitive, easy tween them concluded that there to understand and learn, and fun in an must be a better way to keep a fabri- all-inclusive and organized package cation shop organized, recalled Ben. that’s appropriate for any fabrication shop looking to take their performance Please turn to page 4 | 2 SEPTEMBER 2020 SLIPPERY ROCK GAZETTE Chris Miller Miller has 3 commissioned Studio granite sculptures sited around Barre: Tug of War, a gargoyle bike rack, Unzip- Continued from page 1 ping the Earth in a pocket park, and Heritage, the entry “For the big projects, there are sculpture at the Vermont forklifts, bridge cranes, saws, Granite Museum. sandblasting and all the great stuff needed. I tend to work big when I can, and having these tools is doing a public piece, to a collec- pretty wonderful. Because of my tor, to a private commission, to a back, I try not to work on anything commercial job. Over the last six small anymore, because if it’s a years, my work has been divided hundred pounds or less, I tend to between museums, commercial pick it up and move it! When I’m Right and Below: work, the Vermont State House, working in Barre, if it’s six, ten or Unzipping the Earth. small public sculptures, commis- twenty tons, I just wave the crane Miller calls this inter- sions for private collections and guy over and it gets moved. active sculpture “the private sculpture parks. It runs the “I like both hard and soft stones. world’s largest granite whole spectrum. It’s important to I do much, much more granite zipper .” The challenge: know who you are dealing with. than marble just because granite how to decorate a very The client can be an individual is much more durable, and there long, narrow pocket commissioning the sculpture for are more applications. If it’s an in- park with native gran- themselves, or for a gift, or for a door figurative thing, marble is re- ite? The Miller solution: commercial project or for an insti- ally good for that, but if it’s going with something that's tution, where you are dealing with to be outdoors for years and years, long and narrow – and a committee. You have to know you’re going to want it to be gran- totally unexpected. your audience, and you have to ite. Both soft and hard stones know the cost and know if they have their qualities just like soft can afford it. So I listen intently, and hard wood. With hard wood find out what the budget is, what you can do finer details better, and their needs are, what’s important, with soft wood you can move a lot and what the sculpture needs to faster. It’s the same with stone. do. All these things matter. Some people will suggest the idea Please turn to page 3 for a sculpture, and I’ll know im- mediately if it should be in granite Below: Fawn, and Collie Bench, or marble, because each material two granite therapy-animal also lends itself better to different sculptures also serve as resting subject matter. It’s also nice to go spaces, from a series of seven from granite to marble to wood sculptures created for the Ver- and back again, just for a feeling mont Psychiatric Care Hospital, of variety. a project sponsored by the Ver- mont Arts Council. “That said, I use different stones Miller was team leader for different projects, but I’m a Barre Gray is plain compared Vermont Arts Council. Each year with four artists who big fan of Barre Gray granite, es- to colorful granites, but it is by they grant several commissions provided interactive pecially the dark gray. The grain far my favorite stone to carve. for any number of buildings that sculptures placed is tight, it’s predictable, and it If you’ve got a lot of detail and the state is constructing. Six years throughout the care carves really well. Some of the a lot of movement in your form, ago, Chris was a team leader for facility. Collie Bench by softer granites are more difficult what you’re looking at is all the one of these commissions, and Ryan Mays. Fawn, by to carve, whereas some dark gran- features that you’ve put into it, put together a group of four sculp- Miller, from a model by ites have larger grain and bigger and not looking at the pattern of tors for a project in the Vermont Gampo Wickenheiser. pieces of quartz or feldspar. They the stone. Moreover, the beauty Psychiatric Care Hospital, he ex- are beautiful to look at when they of working with Barre Gray is plained. “We wanted to design are polished, and when used in that you don’t need to look for something that would interact carvings that have a broader form, fissures and cracks, because there with a very vulnerable psychiatric these colors can work out very aren’t any. Once you get a block, population in the hospital, so we well. But when you’re carving it’s solid, it’s dependable, and you designed all these therapy animal something with a lot of detail, the don’t have to think about flaws in sculptures, and put them through- colors and patterns can compete the stone.” out the hospital. We did seven, with the design, unlike the Barre and from what I heard later on Gray that has an extremely uni- Know Your Client’s Needs, from the staff there, the patients form grain. So, if you’re carving Understand Your Market had formed relationships with the a face or something with fine de- Like many New England states, animals, and it had a really big tail, you don’t want the stone to Vermont is very supportive of impact on them.