Jago Reinharz-Trainor, 5, of Portland looks over the sculpture “Gathering Stones” by artist Jesse Salisbury while enjoying a snack during a reception at Fish Point on Portland’s Eastern Promenade in 2021. A new sculpture by Salisbury will be unveiled in Lewiston on Tuesday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald file
LEWISTON — You may never look at rocks the same way again.
Next week, the city will unveil the latest sculpture from Maine native Jesse Salisbury in Kennedy Park. Dubbed ‘Wind and Wave,’ the exhibit consists of a multi-stone sculpture with a wave-shaped carving pattern.
The sculpture is made from Maine Granite Erratic Boulder and will be unveiled in the park at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Salisbury will be on site for the exhibit’s reveal, according to a city press release.
It will not be Salisbury’s first visit to Lewiston. The artist has previously been here to engage with local schools and the Tree Streets neighborhood, according to the release.
The artist is known to draw off the splendor of the coastal landscape.
“Salisbury, who grew up on the coast of Maine, was influenced by its dynamic geology and natural beauty from an early age,” according to the release. “He began carving wood with a local professional artist while in grammar school, and his initial formal artistic training commenced during high school in Japan. An apprenticeship — and continued relationship — then began with renowned traditional ceramic artists Ren and Mami Katayama.
After graduating college with a liberal arts education specializing in art and Asian culture with a focus on sculpture making, Jesse traveled to study with a variety of artists in the United States. To further learn traditional and contemporary carving techniques for United States granite and hard stones, he returned to Japan in the late 1990s to work with contemporary sculptors including Katsumi Ida and Atsuo Okamoto. Salisbury has also worked as a professional assistant and translator at the Yonago International Sculpture Symposium in Tottori, Japan.
Salisbury’s own studio originated on family land in his hometown of Steuben, Maine, where he experimented with local available granites, according to the release. Moving forward, he dedicated himself to the creation of one-of-a-kind stone sculptures in a variety of scales. He also began to travel as an invited artist to an international sculpture symposia where he created large pieces for public art. He went on to found the Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium in 2005, organizing the creation and public collection of 34 sculptures by national and international artists that span three counties in Eastern Maine.
Currently, Salisbury is focused on developing his sculptures on an even larger scale, and in the public realm, through projects that fuse landscape and art and require collaboration, communication, efficiency and integrity, the city’s release says.
Funding for the Lewiston piece was made possible through the Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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