Maine-based sculptor Don Justin Meserve explores narrative and abstract themes in a variety of media. His work reflects a love of the sculptural process, a “hands-on” approach and technical skills informed by an American industrial design education combined with European craft training. After four decades of working as an artist, he has developed a formidable mastery of materials, particularly those associated with traditional sculpture: wood, metal and stone.
Early in his career as a designer in the United States and Denmark, Don invented functional forms for everyday objects. Much of his work today – particularly the “Spirit of the Machine” series - alludes to these early designs but gives them an entirely new life and meaning. Interpreted in granite, a scalpel might become a giant obelisk or machine parts metamorphose into menacing creatures. This series searches for beauty in those ubiquitous manufactured forms we so often overlook.
Working out of a studio in Round Pond Village on the Maine coast exposes Don to marine themes and natural imagery which inevitably surface in his sculpture.
“The Sea” series largely explores forms associated with maritime lore, boat building and fishing. When he had the opportunity to carve side-by-side with Japanese and Maori artists during international symposia, Don gained new appreciation for the universal appeal of ships as mythological symbols and metaphors for the journey of life. While proximity to the sea reinforces the rhythms of overlapping curvilinear forms – fins, sails, waves – denizens of the woods and fields nearby inspire his “Creatures” series.
Although Don’s recent sculpture emphasizes abstract and natural forms, he also produces figurative and narrative works cast in bronze and pewter. An avid reader, Don probes 19th century literature for romantic and spiritual themes while building a library on polar exploration. As facile with ideas as materials, Don draws on every life experience for inspiration including tours of duty in the United States Army when he spent weeks alone in the Arctic wilderness.
Don graduated from the University of Bridgeport where he received a degree in industrial design and completed graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen. In the 1960s, European architecture firms hired designers as generalists and expected them to move fluidly between disparate assignments, solving problems as they arose. So when on staff at Bernadotte and Bjorn, one of Denmark’s largest firms, Don designed architectural details, furniture, glassware and jewelry commissions for Prince Bernadotte, among other projects.