Every Saturday, 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 29-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
About the painters in Obliterating History – a guitar making mystery, domination and submission in a small town garage, a novel by Jean Smith
Julia MacLean (nee Engman) is the mother of protagonist Frank MacLean. Julia grew up in Iowa, went to drama school there and took up painting, which she maintains after she marries ad agency art director Gordon MacLean and has two children.
Gordon is a painter as well. He does pink and orange abstracts that he allows his son Frank to name. The paintings don’t have a basis in reality until young Frank decides what they depict. This is unnerving to Gordon who claims not to have a mind’s eye. He is convinced that he’s something of a fraud when it comes to his creativity. He believes that Frank’s titles are integral to giving his paintings their value.
Julia paints winter landscapes because her gallerist says they are popular. Gordon believes Julia is embedding the snowy scenes with hunters and providers—the type of men he thinks Julia wishes he was. Julia runs with that idea and begins painting virile male figures striding across snowy fields at night.
“Family Swan,” from The Family Swan (Kill Rock Stars, 2002) (download):
