James Mastin

James Richard Mastin (1935–2016) was an American sculptor and painter, best known for his public monuments of life-sized bronze figures commemorating significant historical events and individuals. The hallmark of his work was meticulous craftsmanship and emotional content.

His most recognized public works are the Bahamian National Monument,^[1] "Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden" in Green Turtle Cay, The Bahamas, the "Key West Historical Memorial Sculpture Garden" in Key West, Florida,^[2] and "Les Chasseurs Volontaires" (commemorating The Siege of Savannah) in Savannah, Georgia.

The Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden^[3] was declared a national monument of The Bahamas. It consists of a central monument depicting two Loyalist women arriving in The Bahamas surrounded by 24 busts of descendants of Loyalist families.^[1] The Loyalists were those individuals who remained loyal to the British Crown after the American war of independence in 1776. Many Loyalists in the northern American colonies fled to Canada, while Loyalists in the more southern American colonies fled to the islands of the Bahamas with their slaves. The Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden was commissioned by the Historical Society of Green Turtle Cay.

The Key West Historical Memorial Sculpture Garden^[4] was commissioned by the Friends of Mallory Square, Key West.^[5] Its central monument, "The Wreckers" pays tribute to the brave men engaged in salvage operations that made Key West the richest city on the east coast of the United States south of New York in the nineteenth century.^[6]

Les Chasseurs Volontaires ("Siege of Savannah") was commissioned by the Haitian American Historical Society^[7] and the City of Savannah, and commemorates the free Haitian soldiers who successfully fought in the American Revolution in 1776 alongside the American colonial army in Savannah, Georgia to assist in the American efforts towards independence from Great Britain.^[8] The drummer boy depicted in the monument was a young Henri Christophe, who became one of the original leaders of the Haitian government, after Haiti obtained its independence from France.^[8]

Mastin also created a maquette, or model, for a larger than life-sized sculpture he contemplated called "Circle of Love" to celebrate the native American Lucayan people who lived in South Florida and in the Caribbean basin at the time of the arrival of European immigrants from Spain.^[9]