 Attention! Attention, please! Come this way, please. Pull yourselves away from the food. So, we're just going to have a few minutes. We're just going to have a few minutes to talk about the artists. And I'm David Sheets. I'm the state curator. Nobody less than the state curator could possibly pay the respect and homage to these two artists. It takes a state curator to do that. Or at least they thought so. And they thought so in part, not so much because I'm the state curator, but I'm perhaps their most devoted fan. Now, I know you all think you're the devoted fans, but I have known these two artists for a very long time. They're dear, dear friends as they are of many of you. And they're two artists that in my wildest curatorial dreams, I would never put together in the same show. They know that it was on a quiet Sunday afternoon that they both visited me in my home in Calus to talk about doing a joint venture. And I flat out said to them, but what is it that you both think you have in common other than being artists? And they finally came up with it. The word is uncharted. And in fact, this is the new Chris Miller. This is the new Susan Walrob. And they're not going to talk much about it, but I'll just give you my take on what we're looking at in this incredible space. For one thing, we have the chance, and I'm referring to Art at the Kent, one of my ventures with Nell Emlin and Allison Evans out in Calus where we all live. We had the chance to use this incredible new resource in the middle of Montpelier, the Garage Cultural Center, and to get to know Jody and Dan and Sophie, the family that runs this place, and also a veterinary clinic downstairs, a model for community revitalization all across America, veterinarians and artists throwing them together. But their incredible space here is a huge opportunity for Montpelier. I think we can all agree. And when you put the work of these two disparate artists together in the space, it is by humble opinion that it sings. This space totally sings, and that's what you want in art. It sings in part because Susie Walrob is an artist of incredibly meticulous work. And for any of you who are familiar with how Susie works, just think now that she has ramped it up big time in Uncharted, meaning that these new works and old works that have been reworked are incredibly vibrant and vibrating with energy. It's all about energy. And on this side, Chris, perhaps best known with his alter ego, Jerry Williams, who happily has joined us here tonight as well, are best known, of course, for the monumental piece of sculpture that is now on top of the Statehouse Dome. And yet, we're seeing the intimate Chris Miller. He would be loathe, as you just witnessed, loathe to hear that word used to describe his work. But if you look at each and every one of these incredible carvings, they resonate with the amazing intimacy of the human body and of the people that we know and love in our midst, with possibly the exception of the surprise addition to this collection that he just pointed out to me casually less than an hour ago. The one over the doorway. Yeah. He did it again. Again. This time a little larger and a little more old. Says my wife, who like me is not used to seeing me as old, when you see Stanley Fitch, when you see Elliott Morse, when you see Cora Brooks, yes, that's Cora Brooks over in the corner, you see Vermont and the community that we love. And this guy knows how to render those people and many wonderfully abstract works. Particularly this one, a favorite of mine, because Chris has disrobed Ceres. This is the mahogany that he used for the statue. And this is what we are to believe is under the robe. Jerry, tell them it's not so. Not even close. And Jerry, for us who were able to witness the creation of Ceres, Jerry did render this female form before he robed her in the original maquette. So anyway, we're here to celebrate these two amazing people and I'm hoping they each will say just a little something. There are events under Uncharted that are to happen in the coming weeks while this show is up. And so they don't want to talk too much tonight because they each have a night here when they're hoping the audience will show up. And it's a tough act to follow. And it's a tough act to follow, of course. And plus, as you may notice, I'm losing my voice. So I'm going to throw it over first to Susie and then Chris to say a few words in response to this, to the sage wisdom of this curator. Susie. First I really want to thank you, David, so much for doing this. We're so used to. Thank you so much. And I also really, really want to honor Jody and her daughter Sophie. And I don't think Dan is here. This is their vision and it's extraordinary. And when I very first met them, I came up here. This was a construction site. And I think many of you may remember what this used to look like. And it's, wow. I mean, they've just done a stunning job and they truly are offering us an incredible opportunity for a space to use in so many creative ways. So we're really lucky. Well, and she was so excited, you know, right off the bat. And I was, as an artist, such an unusual experience. Usually over all these years I've been doing this since I was very young. You walk into a gallery and they even get a whiff that you're an artist. They immediately are not very kind. We're certainly embracing. So to have somebody really go, yes, I love that idea. I'd love for you to show. I was so encouraged. And, you know, Chris and I were looking for a home to be able to do this. And this was a big break for me from a normal gallery scene. And it's just been such a pleasure to just completely focus on it, put all the time into what you see. Now in terms of the detail about how it's created and the journey and all of that, I just want you to know that this is just the beginning of a very long time that we get to be here. We're going to be here all the way until Thanksgiving. And I will be here most Fridays and Saturdays. So come at an intimate time. I'm happy to go into them in detail with you and share that and what my vision is and what my technique, which is based on a very long time of evolving. So I'm happy to do that. I'm not going to do that right now. What I would like to encourage you to do is ever since I was young, you know, I get excited about something. The first thing I love to do, especially passionate about something that is meaningful, at least in my experience, I really want to share it. So way back in my younger version of me, I used to teach. I taught around the School of Design and Brown University and Maine College of Art. And I taught like the basic design course that everybody had to take, usually terrified. And so I tried to make it interesting and make it fun, but at the same time, you know, there was foundations that everybody had to learn. But one of the things that I did is at the very end of the semester, I asked everyone to go down into nature and find a little piece, just a little piece of something that was made in nature. So for example, you know, a rock, a stick, a leaf, a flower, a piece of wood. And bring it in. And we would dive into this world of what is actually in your hands you see in terms of color. And it's without going into all the details of that essentially what each student discovered is that in each small piece of nature is essentially the universe. It's an incredibly opening experience. So fast forward to now, I've developed a class that includes also my years of being a yoga teacher and a meditation practitioner, et cetera, to really explore that energy in a course that I call the color of nature. And so that's going to be in my way of really intimately sharing my vision and what I've done but then to also make it yours and your opportunity to have an experience. And so if you haven't interested in this, we have an incredible group of people that have signed up so far. It's going to be an intimate group, so it is limited, but please let me know. And it will include something for everyone. So whether you've had absolutely no experience whatsoever, we have a lot of people take the class there, Marilyn, there. Marilyn's my great example of telling me I'm a scientist. I don't know what I'm doing. She goes out and buys a 795 little watercolor kit and we created a masterpiece in two days. And that was pretty surprising, right? To a professional artist. So really it's open for anyone. When is it? It is October 19th and 20th in this beautiful space and Jenny is making this much. Anyway, thank you. Thank you. Public speaking, yes. I wore my best tie. My art tie. A year ago, Susie and I and Peter met for dinner one night and we talked about galleries and the whole gallery scene and what it was like and we sort of thought let's do our own show together and let's just do stuff that's completely different than we've done before. So here we have some stuff that's completely different. And in a couple weeks I'm supposed to give an art talk and I have a couple weeks to figure out what to say because I can't really describe this stuff. It's just weird, new, experimental, fun stuff. So I'll explain that later. That's the sixth, I believe, a Sunday afternoon here. The fifth. The fifth Saturday. I've got a little time to figure things out. But this room reminds me of a time when I had to get up in front of a whole room full of art people and give a little talk at an artist residency and there was 20 people before me who sort of presented their work and talked about what it meant, what it meant to be an artist, what it meant to be a professional, you know, their basic philosophy of what art meant. And as it was happening, I figured that I've got to do the same and I've got to figure out what that is. And I've been doing this for over 40 years. That's all I do. I do this for a living and I've never done anything else. So I thought about it for a while and I figured out what I was going to say and I got up in front of everybody and presented my work. And then I said, you know, after all these years I really decided what being an artist really means to me. And I wanted to just explain my personal philosophy of what art is and why I'm an artist. We all got very quiet. And I said, I just want to make a handful of really cool shit before I die. And that's what I'm doing. Thank you. Take this before we close. There is a book here and I know they would really appreciate it if you put your contact information down and especially told them a little bit about what you think of this uncharted territory. So please enjoy. Go up to both Susie and Chris and have a good time.