LEWISTON — An artist with the rare talent to carve bas-relief images on black slate in intricate detail, Lynn Albert Leger gave it all up in the 1970s as he sank into deep despair while suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder from his time as a river-boat driver for the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.

Lynn Albert Leger stands in front of the Lewiston city seal he carved in slate, which has been in the administrator’s office at City Hall since the 1970s. Sun Journal file photo

He said weekly counseling sessions helped keep him alive for decades.

A few short years ago, Leger became disgusted when he realized he had ignored his artistic talent and had wasted decades of his life.

“I got angry at myself,” Leger recalled. “Through counseling, they turned me around to the point that I actually got angry at myself. I was thinking, ‘Look, you can do this art and you’re not doing it. You’re just throwing something away, something that’s valuable.’ It’s the tools that God gives you, it’s up to us to use them.”

The tools, like a grinder and a Dremel, are more advanced now than the hammer and chisel that he used when he first started. The results are just as intricate and eye-opening as his early work from the 1970s.

The Maine Arts Commission has two of Leger’s carvings on display at the State House as part of a Veterans’ Art Exhibition featuring 39 Maine veterans. The exhibit, which began Nov. 1, continues through Feb. 28.

Two pieces of slate artwork created by Navy veteran Lynn Albert Leger of Lewiston are included in the Maine Art Commission’s “Art in the Capitol” exhibit of veterans’ art at the capitol complex in Augusta. The show, which includes 60 works of art, opened on Nov. 1 and will remain on exhibit through Feb. 28. This piece by Leger, made from black slate from Monson, is called “Round Scroll.” Judith Meyer/Sun Journal

A celebration for all of the artists is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 13 at the theater in the Togus Veterans Administration facility from 2-4 p.m. All of the artwork will be shown on a large movie screen in the theater.

Leger is expecting to receive the Quilt of Valor during the ceremony.

The two pieces on display feature recent carvings of a lily and an architectural design that he calls “Round Scroll.” Unlike his early carvings, Leger’s recent works include the use of color. All of his carvings are done on black slate from Monson, a town in Piscataquis County.

His passion is the architectural designs that he learned from his father’s old books.

“Round Scroll is more from an old Greek or Romas design,” Leger said. “It’s what I would rather do, but not too many people seemed to be pleased with architectural design from way back.”

He finds that people react better to carvings such as nautical themes, like the ones he created for the Peace Museum in Damariscotta. Those includes carvings of lighthouses and boats in black slate.

He has carvings on display as far away as Florida and Germany, but he is uncertain how they got there.

Born and raised in Lewiston, Leger says he was drafted into the Navy, where he became an assault river boat driver, patrolling the Mekong River and other waterways in Vietnam. He did that for four years, from 1969-72, and jumped at the chance to leave after four years. He still sees someone every week to help treat his PTSD and depression.

“I’ve been through some bad times with the depression,” Leger said. “I can very easily understand when some soldiers commit suicide after wartime. It’s easy for me to understand. I don’t think I was too far from it myself.”

He says it is the art that is now keeping him sane. He estimates that he has carved hundreds of pieces. The pieces that he sells are matted and framed.

The new tools he uses today save him time. He estimates that some of his carvings can take more than five hours to complete.

His all-time favorite is one he created in the 1970s when he was commissioned to carve the Lewiston City Seal. Using just a hammer and chisel, that carving on a 3-foot-by-3-foot piece of black slate took him 122 hours to complete. It still hangs in the city administrator’s office at City Hall.

“It’s the most intricate piece that I have ever done,” he said.