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.
Part of painting for a month in Miami was watching two kids for five days while their parents went to an art fair in Europe. We all survived, and I got back to painting. When I next saw one of the kids, the 10-year-old girl, her mother had brought her over to the artists’ residence to say goodnight.
“Good night, my sweetheart,” I said, giving her a little hug. “Sleep tight, my darling.”
Standing next to me, a Famous Art World Artist who had just arrived from England—nice guy.
“Good night, my sweetheart,” he said and hugged the girl. “Sleep tight, my darling.”
Wait. He totally copied what I said and even he looked slightly confused, considering he’d only just met the girl that day.
Jet lag, I thought—or maybe that’s how he got to be a Famous Art World Artist. Over the next few days I noticed that he did this repeating thing repeatedly; he used the same words as the person he was having a conversation with. I noticed that I liked it when he used my words. I liked him more when he used my words back to me.
Maybe Art World Artists from all over are doing this thing, this repeating thing, copying others, to get somewhere. Maybe it works. Maybe it works.
“Beppo’s Room,” from Sitting On Snaps (Matador, 1995; Smarten UP!, 2009) (download):
