01907 Fall 2018 V2

"
I want to
investigate
the expressive
potential of
the material.
- Reno Pisano
"
Left, sculptures in progress are scattered about Reno Pisano's studio. At right, Reno Pisano speaks about a sculpture in his home. PHOTOS: SPENSER HASAK
Sculpting a LIFE and a LEGACY
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
24 | 01907
After 96 years, Reno Pisano knows
the secret to a long life.
"Never finish anything," he said.
That maxim is on display inside his
Nahant garage studio, where works in
progress stand along the clutter of tools and
a makeshift forge fashioned from a furnace.
Among the unfinished pieces are a trio of
nudes and a sculpture of orator and onetime
Lynn resident Frederick Douglass.
Age can't keep Pisano from carving,
casting and creating art. A town
resident for more than 40 years, he
has an impressive resume of sculpting
accomplishments.
His work, "Tectonic Eclipse," graces the
town library's lawn. Lynn is dotted with his
creations, including a Douglass monument
on the common and a carved tribute to
Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy.
His sculptures and the material
he works with reflect an inquisitive,
impatient spirit that age and time have
failed to tamp down. He switches from
plaster to marble to granite to wood
and epoxy, and his creations range from
a massive likeness of P.T. Barnum to
delicately rendered torsos.
For Pisano, art is not so much a
process of creation as it is an exploration
of the artist's abilities.
"Most artists will produce work
to impress others, but if that is
your mission, it almost immediately
compromises your objective," he said.
The son of a barber and a bridal
gown designer, Pisano grew up in Lynn's
Highlands, graduated from Classical
High School, and attended the Boston
Museum School for a semester before
joining the Army and taking part in
several World War II campaigns.
He went back to school after the war
and went to work for General Electric's
household division, creating stylistic designs
for appliances. The father of four was
married to his late wife, Mary, for 67 years.
Before channeling his energy into art,
Pisano funneled it into physical fitness to
overcome the effects of rheumatic fever.
He lifted weights at the old Lynn Market
Street YMCA and swam a mile a day.
Like many Nahant residents, he owned
a boat, but art has endured as his abiding
passion. He has forged his own tools to
create an implement capable of crafting clay
or plaster into the creation he envisions.
"I want to investigate the expressive
potential of the material," he explained.
Creative pursuits still give Pisano
time to contemplate Nahant's beauty as a
place balanced between land and sea.
"I appreciate how peaceful it is," he said.