Brigitte Offord is a reporter with Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Hardwick Gazette
Growing up in Vermont, Chris Miller always noticed the old rusty trucks left behind on farms, sometimes with trees growing through them.
“They just seemed to be part of the landscape,” he said.
So once he became a sculptor, he knew what he had to make.
“I wanted to do a stone truck, and I did it in my front yard,” he said.
That was 15 years ago. Today, Miller’s truck sculptures are in high demand across the country. Last summer, he installed a piece for a client in Georgia. He’s also done work as far away as Texas and Arizona.
Barre’s history is full of successful granite sculptors. But only Miller specializes in creating full-sized replicas of trucks.
Miller started out as a woodworker before venturing into stone about 20 years ago. Living in Barre, he said it’s natural he turned to granite.
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” he said.
When it comes to his artistic process, Miller prefers to keep it local. He does most of his work at his studio in Barre, using materials from quarries and businesses within the community.
“I don’t want to be away from home for long,” Miller said.
It takes about five or six months to complete each truck, and Miller does about 80% of that work himself, he said., Depending on the truck, Miller says he has about three or four people helping at a time.
Miller has several recurring members in his crew, including Jared Flynn, a stonewall builder and co-founder of the Stone Trust in Dummerston. He appreciates their artistic eye and their ability to fit stones in such a way that looks cohesive, yet randomized.
Once the studio pre-building is done, transporting the piece to its resting place is quite the operation. Miller works with Bellavance Trucking in Barre to pack up his sculptures and move them where they need to go.
After transporting the piece to its final resting place, Miller adds the finishing touches.
Many of Miller’s trucks include a waterfall feature, which is added during those final touches. For this, he works with a team from a company called Aquascape. They travel all over the country to meet Miller and finish the trucks.
Miller also serves as the sculptor in residence at the Granite Museum in Barre. It’s natural for Miller to work out of the self-proclaimed granite capital of the world, said Scott McLaughlin, the museum’s executive director.
The first quarries in Barre opened after the war of 1812 and were originally run by farmers looking to diversify their income, McLaughlin said.
Later, experienced quarry workers and sculptors began immigrating to the area, many from Italy. With the advent of the granite quarries, Barre’s population boomed from 2,000 to 12,500 people.
Although the granite industry has shrunk from its heyday, it is still a vital part of Barre’s life. There are currently multiple granite suppliers and two active granite quarries in the area, McLaughlin said.
Miller believes the pandemic helped to revive the granite business, with gravestones and monuments in high demand.
Miller’s modern twist on classical sculpting also is helping to revive the granite industry, and inspiring new artists.
For those aspiring artists, Miller has this advice: “Just go and do it.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: In Barre, granite on wheels.