Jamie Darrell Lester is an American artist best known for creating ceramic, bronze, and steel sculptures that “focus on the human figure combined with imagery derived primarily from life in Appalachia, including birds, architecture, and landscape.”"WV ARTIST ON DISPLAY: JAMIE LESTER, WEST VIRGINIA SCULPTOR." ''Hashtag West Virginia.'' https://hashtagwv.com/2021/11/wv-artist-on-display-jamie-lester-west-virginia-sculptor (accessed 12/10/2021) Lester also creates paintings, digital art, and music.

Sculpture

Lester's award-winning sculptures have been shown in galleries in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, and the United Kingdom. Many of his sculptures have been produced as commissioned public works, including statues of actor

Don Knotts Jesse Donald Knotts (July 21, 1924February 24, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He is widely known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on the 1960s sitcom ''The Andy Griffith Show'', for which he earned five Emmy Awards. He als ...

(along High Street in front of the Metropolitan Theatre in

Morgantown, WV Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Monongahela River in North Central West Virginia and is the home of West Virginia University. The population was 30,347 at the 2 ...

, 2016),Nichols, Cliff (18 Oct 2016). “Against the Odds: Morgantown sculptor Jamie Lester portrays the man, Don Knotts, over characters he played,” ''Fairmont Times West Virginian.'' https://www.timeswv.com/news/against-the-odds-morgantown-sculptor-jamie-lester-portrays-the-man-don-knotts-over-characters-he/article_5d54a690-94ea-11e6-a8a5-cb6bd7e18415.html (accessed 12/03/2021) basketball player and executive

Jerry West Jerry Alan West (May 28, 1938 – June 12, 2024) was an American basketball player and executive. He played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and is widely regarded as one of the greatest ...

(outside the West Virginia University Coliseum, Morgantown, WV, 2007), George Steinbrenner in

Monument Park (Yankee Stadium) Monument Park is an open-air museum located in Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York City. It contains a collection of monuments, commemorative plaque, plaques, and retired numbers honoring distinguished members of the New York Yankees of Major L ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance at

MCU Park Maimonides Park (formerly MCU Park and KeySpan Park) is a minor league baseball stadium on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. The home team and primary tenant is the New York Mets-affiliate ...

in the

Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...

neighborhood of

Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

West Virginia quarter reverse side 2005 transparent sm

In 2003, Lester designed the obverse side of the

state quarter issued as part of the

US Mint The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. The U.S. Mint is one of two U.S. age ...

's 50 State quarters program in 2005. The design features the

New River Gorge Bridge The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge long over the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. With an arch long, the New River Gorge Bridge was the world's longest ...

.Staff Writer (22 Aug 2021). "Lester featured at Old Stone Room Gallery." The Register Herald. (accessed 12/10/2021 Each year, Lester creates bronze-relief busts representing new inductees to the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame was, until recently, located at World Golf Village between Jacksonville, Florida and St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States. It is unusual amongst sports halls of fame in that a single site honored both men ...

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; ) is a city in and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located 40 miles (64 km) south of downtown Jacksonville, the city is on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spani ...

. As of August 2021, Lester had also created over 30 statues for the

Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...

, each of which are installed at the

Summit Bechtel Reserve The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, often shortened to Summit Bechtel Reserve (SBR) or The Summit, is a High Adventure base owned by Scouting America and located in Fayette and Raleigh counties, near Beckley, West Virginia. It co ...

, near

Beckley, WV Beckley is a city in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. The population was 17,286 at the 2020 census, making it the ninth-most populous city in the state. It is the principal city of the Beckley metropolitan are ...

. Among these is a statue of

Rex Tillerson Rex Tillerson is an American energy executive who served as the 69th United States secretary of state from 2017 to 2018 in the first administration of Donald Trump. From 2006 to 2016, he was chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Exxon ...

, the former

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the ...

who served as President of the

from 2010 to 2012. Ascending Eagle in Arizona

In July 2023, the

announced the unveiling and dedication of Lester's bronze "Ascending Eagle" statue as part of Scouting's ''Women of Character Program'', which ran concurrent with their 2023 National Jamboree. The 8-feet-tall statue located at the

is intended to inspire past, current and future generations of girls and women involved in Scouting. Other recent works include "Rising Cardinals" (2021), which is located between Neville and North Heber Streets in

. This sculpture was part of a beautification project for the city. It features four red cardinals and was constructed with the help of Lester's business partner, engineer Jeff Edwards. During an interview conducted during the public unveiling of the work, Lester said he chose the state bird of West Virginia to symbolize Beckley “rising up.” In an interview with

Tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

, Lester revealed that he not only sculpts in bronze, ceramics, steel, and mixed media, but also creates sculpture digitally and in virtual reality. His larger projects can take several years to complete. For example, Lester stated that he worked over 4,000 hours to create his rendering of

, while planning for his

statue began nearly ten years before the final version was erected. Lester has stated that his artistic style is influenced by

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

post-impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

, and

surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

Painting

Lester is also an accomplished

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

whose works sometimes combine his figurative representations with Appalachian themes. For example, Lester created a series of

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

paintings showing the faces of

coal miners People have worked as coal miners for centuries, but they became increasingly important during the Industrial Revolution when coal was burnt on a large scale to fuel stationary and locomotive engines and heat buildings. Owing to coal's strategic ...

wearing miner's helmets, which was utilized in the non-profit public awareness campaign "Remember the Miners" that launched in 2010. A watercolor series Lester created in 2005 features giantized people amid Appalachian architecture.

Early life and education

Born into a working-class family in

Oceana, West Virginia Oceana is a town in Wyoming County, West Virginia. The population was 1,462 at the time of the 2020 census. Oceana is the oldest city in Wyoming County and was the county seat until 1907. History Established in 1797 by early settler and Revolu ...

, Lester began creating art at the age of three, due to the influence of his mother, a

watercolor painter Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

, and his father, a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

who introduced to him to

whittling Whittling may refer either to the art of carving shapes out of raw wood using a knife or a time-occupying process of repeatedly shaving slivers from a piece of wood. It is used by many as a pastime, or as a way to make artistic creations. Backgr ...

and fort building. Whittling and fort building, Lester explains, are "kind of sculptures."Julian, Norman (2018) "Artist Jamie Lester," Goldseal Magazine, Vol.44, Issue 2, pg. 56. Listed at Goldenseal Index: https://archive.wvculture.org/goldenseal/2018index.html (accessed 12/10/2021). Reproduced at https://archive.wvculture.org/goldenseal/summer18/JamieLester.html (accessed 12/10/2021) Lester later attended

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...

and graduated with

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

degree in 1997. He has continued his education by studying specific artists and styles. In 2015, Lester traveled to

Rome, Italy Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, where he completed a course of study on the figurative sculpture of

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italians, Italian sculptor and Italian architect, architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prom ...

. In 2011, he travelled to China, where he taught as a guest artist at the

Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute The Jingdezhen Ceramic University (), in Jingdezhen city in the Jiangxi province of the People's Republic of China, is China's only institute of higher learning dedicated to the ceramic arts. The Jingdezhen area is historically significant in the ...

. He also studied in the Chinese city of

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

."Jamie Lester: Monongalia County, Sculpture." ''Tamarack Foundation for the Arts.'' https://tamarackfoundation.org/directorylisting/jamie-lester/ (accessed 12/10/2021

Vandalia Bronze and Love Hope Center for the Arts

After graduating from

in 1997, Lester founded Vandalia Bronze in

. Aside from operating as Lester's workshop, Vandalia Bronze hosts the Nampara Arts Cooperative, which provides rentable space to ceramic artists, including equipment and kilns, and public instruction. In 2021, Lester co-founded the Love Hope Center for the Arts, a non-profit educational space in

Fayetteville, WV Fayetteville is a town in and the county seat of Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,887 at the 2020 census. Fayetteville lies adjacent to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve and is directly south of ...

.Skeldon, Katherine (01 May 2021). "Fayetteville welcomes new art center." ''WOAY-ABC TV''. https://woay.com/fayetteville-welcomes-new-art-center/ (accessed 12/11/2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Jamie 21st-century American sculptors 1974 births Living people People from Oceana, West Virginia Sculptors from West Virginia