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 27-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Interview with David Lester in With Arms Outstretched Arms zine (Leeds, U.K., 2007)
“I have always loved posters, and I have always had a strong interest in political history. Many people I have admired are quite obscure. Not because they are unimportant, but because they are somewhat lost to history. My hope is that we can learn from history and be inspired by it. But as we can see, even in love relationships, we often make the same mistakes over and over again.
“The key to my poster series is not that these are heroes, but that they are real, flawed people who stood up at a moment in history and took action. I purposely choose a politically diverse selection of individuals because I think that social change can come from individuals you may not agree with on many other issues including their personal lives. Social change can be messy.
“People in my poster series include John Heartfield, one of the creators of photomontage. He is an inspiration because he successfully combined art and politics at a time of great danger to himself during Hitler’s rise to power. American Paul Robeson campaigned against lynching. Imagine living in a time when lynching was actively occurring and the general public took little notice. You have to act. Robseon did, amid great personal sacrifice. Or the obscure American Jessie Lopez De La Cruz, who became an activist for farm workers rights when she was 42.
“When we create our own art, when we engage in activism, it can all seem hopeless and obscure. But that is all the more reason to act. The people I’ve documented faced down that political loneliness. They didn’t know they would succeed (and some didn’t), but their desire for a just world propelled them on.”
