Don Justin Meserve

Don explored themes about nature, technology, mythology, and spirituality through an intuitive understanding of materials and methods. Best known for works in granite, and basalt, he loved to demonstrate, the sculpture process. A true teacher at heart, Don influence a generation of sculptors. Always a driver artists, he was a loving family man, neighbor, and world citizen.

Don’s upbringing in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, by Walter Meserve, an electrical engineer; and Dory (Hobart) Meserve, a musician and poet, undoubtedly influenced his lifelong fascination with the intersection of technology and art.

After high school Don enlisted in the U.S. Army to attend combat training and ordnance school. An expert marksman, he served in Greenland with 146^th Ordnance Company near the North Pole. This seminal experience inspired later artworks about the Arctic habitat and maritime lore. Active during operation “Blue Bat,” the 1958 crisis under Eisenhower, Don served in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Asia, Mexico and Northern Europe, remaining a reservist until 1962. In spite of strong nonconformist streak, Don valued the skills and discipline he learned in the military and remained a proud veteran throughout his life.

In 1964 while on the G.I. Bill, Don earned an industrial design degree from the University of Bridgeport after studying with mentors, product designer Robert Redmond and painter Paul Nonay, Upon graduation he received the Wilkinson Award for cutlery design and a Scandinavian American Foundation scholarship for graduate studies in Copenhagen. In Denmark, he served as a product designer at a prominent architectural firm, while at the same time, mastering glassblowing, plaster casting, and woodcraft. An adept draftsman, Don often swayed skeptical clients by sketching presentations upside-down.

While running a design office back in the United States Don began to sculpt and teach in earnest, He joined the faculty at Rhone Island School of Design alongside master artisans Tage Frid, and Dale Chihuly, He continued to mentor young artists but left academia to sculpt and consult as a master mason. In the 1980’s he had established an art studio complex in Round Pond, Maine, and a longtime partnership with Gleason Fine Art.

Hide