Chris Miller Studio

About Us

Our Story, Biography & Artist Statement

I began sculpting in 1976, the year I finished High School. I found that I learned very little while studing art in college, but had the great fortune to study Drawing and Sculpture for a few years with the late Lothar Werslin of Sandgate, Vermont in the late seventys. From 1980 to 1998 I kept shop in the former Community House in Peru, Vt. Along with wood sculpture, I kept real busy carving commercial signs and commissioned work.

During the Nineties I cast tons of small work to keep up with wholesale accounts and lots of craft shows, traveling all over the east coast and midwest. Way too much travelling, but I got to meet with hundreds of thousands of customers and fellow craftsmen out on the show curcuit.

In 1998 I packed up the truck and moved north to Calais, Vt. My new studio is way nicer than I ever dreamed of and a joy to work in. I am staying off the road and concentrating on one of a kind commissioned work. Nowadays, things are exciting as I have the pleasure to work and study with my neighbor and master stone sculptor Eric Oberg. After 25 years concentrating on wood sculpture it's both a challenge and refreshing to spend time learning to carve stone. Coming up this year, I am planning a series of portrait studies - stay tuned!

Biography

Studies:

1977- Drawing, Art History and Painting - Southern Connecticut State College

1979-1980 Figure Drawing, Clay Sculpture - Lothar Weurslin - Southern Vermont College - Manchester, Vt.

1981- 1984 Art Students Drawing Group - Manchester, Vt.

2001- Currently Stone Sculpture - Eric Oberg - Calais, Vt.

2002- Currently Life Drawing / Anatomy - Bill Brauer - Montpelier, Vt

Exibitions and Gallery Shows:

1982- 1984 Members Juried show - Southern Vermont Art Center - Manchester Vt.

1988- 1991 Gallery Northstar - Grafton and Manchester Vt.

1987 / 1991 Stratton Arts Festival - Featured Artist

1992- 2001 Vermont State Craft Centers

1994 Artists at the Equinox - Juried show

2003 Studio Arts Place - Barre,Vt - Juried Show "Conversations In Stone"

Currently - Curtis Swensen Gallery and Sculpture Park - Stowe, Vermont

2004 Stidio Place Arts - Barre, Vt - Juried Show " Rock Solid"

Associations:

Vermont Crafts Council

National Woodcarvers Assn.

American Crafts Council

Artist Statement

Galleries and Patrons are always asking for an artist statement to accompany my work. I have resisted so far due to my cynical nature. Most artist statements start with annoying lofty statements about the deep meaning of art with passages like "My work expresses a fusion of modernest methodologies and contemporary urban paradigms, blah, blah, blah......." so much academic blabbering.

I will tell you what this work means to me. Carving is a relaxing and personally rewarding experience for me. There is something hard to describe about the process of finding form. You start with a solid block of wood or stone, and slowly carve away reducing a bit at a time and feel the form emerge. There is a trance like state while carving when you are so focused on the entirely pleasurable act of carving that hours fly by. I always tell people that meditation is for people that cannot carve. So carving is really a selfish act for me. It just plain feels good. The feeling at the end of the day when I stand back and view the progress and that tangible sence of accomplishment. I admire people who can do good work in an office or interpersonal setting. I need to pick up some tools make things. It's more than being creative and the need to create, which is an undeniable driving force, it's the moments each day when I reach a spot in the form and know that it is right. For me it's fairly simple, having something beautiful produced at the end of the day that will be appreciated. As I said, selfishness.

As far as influences and inspiration, the great classic sculptors Rodin, Michaelangelo, Donetello and Bernini are my favorites. The turn of the century illustrators Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle and before them, Albrecht Durer and Aubrey Beardsley. Fantasy artists M.C.Echer, Brian Froud and Frank Frezetta. Now, I am real fortunate to be living nearby the granite capitol of the world with the spectacular carved artwork at the Hope and Green Mount Cemeteries. Centuries of the finest work of the finest sculptors of their day reside here. Just walking around these beautiful grounds on a sunny day would make anyone want to carve.