Every week, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 43-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
David is a master of many things including emotionally charged vignettes in which we don’t always know the narrative, but there’s likely an injustice involved. When his people look out of the frame, you can bet you’re supposed to catch the drift. Overall, his illustrations remind me of the words in “Cherry Flowers”: “Gliding through the rings the oars make on the water.” In which there’s a process to behold.
Every now and then, I paint something political, but I usually feel like adding an essay to make sure I get my point across. It’s likely bad form to use David’s illo to show you a painting inspired by the Guerrilla Girls, but, I have feeling he’ll be OK with it.
“Cherry Flowers” from Dovetail (K, 1992) (download):