He Makes Trucks Out Of Rocks

He Makes Trucks Out Of Rocks AG WORLD Photos of a “Ford Rock Garden” circulating on social media caught our attention So we tracked down the artist behind it and discovered it’s just one of five of his creations - so far It started when Vermont sculptor Chris Miller made a Ford truck sculpture for himself about 10 years ago when he was between commissioned projects “The inspiration came from driving around and seeing old trucks with trees growing up through them with rust and moss like art in the landscape ” Miller explains He stacked natural stone and flagstone to create his Ford truck “Most of my sculpture starts with blocks and I take pieces away This is building from the ground up ” he says Someone took a photo that circulated on social media and his phone started ringing Ordinarily he wouldn’t have had time but it was 2020 during the Covid lockdown So when a car wash owner from Georgia asked him to build a 1940 Ford truck with a water feature Miller accepted the challenge He worked with a pond pro from Aquascape® to create a design to include plumbing for water to flow from the back of the pickup The partnership continued with truck sculptures in Maryland Texas and Arizona with each piece more elaborate and detailed “The most challenging part is the engineering The early ones had stone bases but now to see underneath there’s a steel frame to get them off the ground ” Miller says He prefabs some of the granite marble and stone parts like wheels and fenders in his Vermont studio Then he ships everything to the site and stacks and hammers and chisels stone to shape it and give it a textured surface It takes him and his team 2 to 3 weeks to put each sculpture together Handling pieces of 30-lb stone and the labor-intensive work is hard on the body; Miller has had three spine surgeries But he loves the art form and at 65 he has a goal to finish 10 of the large sculptures “The criteria are that each one has to be more interesting more intricate and more fun than the one before ” he says noting that each of his first five projects has followed that pattern The last couple of trucks included lights and other details Project number six raises the bar even more Miller has started a 1944 John Deere tractor that is 1 1/2 times the actual size It will be installed on a Tennessee farm in 2024 The back wheels are 18-in thick 7 1/2-ft dia black granite “It needs a frame to support 40 000 lbs and he wants smoke out of the smokestack and lights that work All that engineering requires a lot of head-scratching ” he says Besides working on the tractor Miller is in the midst of a huge column and monument project for a Vermont art academy Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Chris Miller Studio P O Box 41 Calais Vt 05648 ph 802-223-0184; cmillervermont@gmail com; Facebook: Chris Miller Studio; Instagram: chrismillerstudio

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