DAVID LESTER
CV

304-1320 Salsbury Dr.
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V5L 4B3

604-253-8106

meccanormal@hotmail.com

Visual Artist
Guitar Player in Mecca Normal
"...an unbending advocate of thoughtful indie culture for almost two decades now. The Vancouver guitar-and-voice twosome doesn't just make demanding music, they also make books, paintings, photos, cartoons, among other things."— SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Mecca Normal


2005:
Highlights:
- Paper Politics group exhibit of prints and exhibition catalogue. Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle, WA
- Mecca Normal keynote presentation at the Arts For Life conference Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, BC. 200 high school students in attendance.
- ZED TV (CBC) features "Actually I like crap" t-shirt design on Canadian national TV.
- Gruesome Acts of Capitalism selected by Bookmobile Project, currently travelling North America.

2004:
Highlights:
- "Gruesome Acts of Capitalism" published by Arbeiter Ring, Winnipeg
- Art included in "Only a Beginning" (Arsenal Pulp Press) -- anthology compiled and edited by Allan Antliff -- the book documents over a quarter-century of grassroots activism.
- "If It's All the Same to You" -- a graphic short story (6 pages) published in Bananafish Magazine (San Francisco)
- Cartoons printed regularly in the San Diego Reader
- Release of Mecca Normal CD "Janis Zeppelin" (Smarten Up! Records)
- "Noir Canada" graphic short story becomes part of the Comic Art Collection, Michigan State University Library (Special Collections Division)

2004: Art Exhibits:
"Inspired Agitators & the Pantomime Horse"
Two person touring art exhibit with Jean Smith of Mecca Normal
Xeno Gallery, Vancouver, BC - March 25 - April 26
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC
Grand Forks Public Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC
Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
David Thompson Cultural Centre, Nelson, BC
Cumberland Arts Centre, Cumberland, BC
Bryce’s Barber Shop, Olympia Experimental Music Festival
Denman Island Community Hall, Denman Island, BC
The Crooked Cafe, Kaslo, BC
Bean Scene Coffee House, Kelowna, BC
Wild Indigo Theatre, Hornby Island, BC

2004 - 2006
Group Shows
Metrospace, Sonic Landscapes, East Lansing, MI 2006
OK. Quoi?! Contemporary Arts Festival, Struts Gallery, Sackville, NB 2006
5+5 Gallery, Paper Politics, Brooklyn, NY 2006
Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle, WA 2005
Bookmobile (travelled North America) 2005
Art in the Air Audio Art Festival, Sackville, New Brunswick 2005
Happy Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia 2005
Artropolis Road Show (Human Image In The Landscape) curated by Ed Varney -- Chilliwack Art Gallery, Alternator Gallery (Kelowna), Kootenay Art Gallery (Castlegar), Kamloops Art Gallery, Grunt Gallery (Vancouver), Open Space (Victoria), Nanaimo Art Gallery
Counterfeit Gallery, Seattle
Interurban Gallery, Vancouver
Ministry of Casual Living, Victoria, BC
Tollbooth Gallery, Tacoma, WA
Department of Safety, Anacortes, WA
Lombardi Gallery, Austin, Texas
Bookmobile, Re-Echo (travelled North America)

2006
Lecture
"How Art and Music Can Change the World" -- co-presented with Jean Smith: The World Peace Forum, The Roundhouse (curated by Gary Cristall) 2006

2005
Lecture
"How Art and Music Can Change the World" -- co-presented with Jean Smith
Arts For Life conference, Richmond Art Gallery (200 high school students in attendance)

2004
Lecture
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver BC (400 Foundation students)
Burnaby Central High School, Burnaby, BC (400 students)
Grand Forks Public Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC
Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
David Thompson Cultural Centre, Nelson, BC
Denman Island Community Hall, Denman Island, BC
Bean Scene Coffee House, Kelowna, BC

2002 - 2003
"Inspired Agitators" -- two person art exhibit with Jean Smith
Western Front, Vancouver
Balazo Gallery, San Francisco
Flywheel Gallery, Easthampton, MA
The Middle Gallery, Indie Media Center, Urbana, IL
Capitol Theater, Olympia, WA
The Smell, Los Angeles
AK Press, Oakland
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle
Knitting Factory, New York

2002 - 2003
Group Shows
Interurban Gallery, Vancouver (2003)
Maltwood Fine Arts Gallery, Victoria (2003)
Word On The Street. The Moat Gallery, Vancouver Public Library - Curator of a group show: Jason MacLean, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Jean Smith, Shayne Ehman and David Lester. (2003)
Bookmobile, Inspired Agitators (travelled North America, 2003)
Spin Gallery, Toronto (2003)
Bfly Atelier, Vancouver (2002)
Bookmobile, Gruesome Acts of Capitalism (travelled North America, 2002)
Tart Gallery, Vancouver - Post No Bills - exhibit of posters (2002)
Fine Arts Gallery, Edmonton (2002)

2002 - 2003
Lecture
"How Art and Music Can Change the World" -- co-presented with Jean Smith
Chatham College, sound art class, Pittsburgh, PA
St Vincent's College, poetry class, Latrobe, PA
The GAFC Church, Bellingham, WA
Capitol Theater, Olympia, WA
Pacific Switchboard Collective Gallery, Portland, OR
Youth Drop-in Center, Garden Grove, Orange County, CA
Western Front, 5 nights, artist-run space, Vancouver
Lucy Parsons Center, Boston
The Bakery Art Collective, Providence, RI
Bottle Top, 6 nights upstairs at the Empty Bottle, Chicago
University of Chicago Art Gallery, Normal, IL

Curator:
"Does It Help When You Close Your Eyes?" -- a five person art show at Vancouver's Word On The Street, 2003 included art by Jason MacLean, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Jean Smith, Shayne Ehman and David Lester. Mecca Normal performances and workshop elements were presented.

Illustrations printed in these publications and books:
Reproduce & Revolt: A Graphic Toolbox for the 21st Century Activist (Soft Skull Press) * Paper Politics * Z Magazine * CityFold * Briar Patch * Drippytown Comics & Stories * Grimm Magazine * San Diego Reader (regular contributor) * Bananafish (San Francisco) * Vancouver Sun * Literary Review of Canada * Succoacido (Italy) * Warburger (Slovenia) * Mix Magazine * 3rd Annual Alternative Writing & Design (winner), * Stereoscomic (France) * The Best of Zines * Prentice-Hall * Canadian Forum * Wegway * Canadian Fiction * Broken Pencil * Writer’s Block * Vancouver Review * Sub-terrain * Re-sister * Geist Magazine * The Leveller (London) * Time Out (London) * Cultural Correspondence (NYC) * Latin America Newsletters (London) * Resurgence (London). * Ten illustrations for Rebel Moon by Montreal poet Norman Nawrocki (1996) AK Press, San Francisco

Graphic Designer:
* Book covers * letterhead * posters * brochures * catalogues * CD covers * business cards * buttons * t-shirts * logos. CLIENTS INCLUDE: Ronsdale Press, Anvil Press, Bluefield, Touchstone, Pink Ink, Playwrights Theatre Festival, Blizzard, Firehall Arts Centre, Tamanhous, New Star, Pulp Press, Crown, Harbour, New Society, Caitlin. OF SPECIAL NOTE: Zines (Booth-Clibborn Editions) design work featured in two page spread. * West Coast Music Award nomination for album cover design. * Paul Robeson poster (Celebrate Peoples’ History Series, Chicago). * Inspired Agitators poster series featured in Punk Planet Magazine. Poster art in punk graphics anthology, Fucked Up Photocopied (Gingko Press).

Editorial Designer:
* BC BookWorld * Vancouver Sun * Musqueam News * V Magazine * Vancouver Magazine * Latin America Newsletters * Georgia Straight * North Shore Weekly * Open Road * West Ender * People’s Law School * Canadian Forestry Association

Animator:
Change Is How You Act shown at 25 Years of BC Animation Festival (Pacific Cinematheque) 1999

Books (author):
* The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism REVISED EDITION (Arbeiter Ring Publishing) 2007
* The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism (Arbeiter Ring Publishing) 2005
* Afternoon Descends to Night
* I’ve Fallen In Love With You
* I Talk so Fast That My Words Lose Context & Meaning.

Reviews of "The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism":
"Lester breaks down the system's more despicable traits into easy-to-read factoids that are certain to appall and inspire."--Alternative Press Magazine (Cleveland, OH)

"Lester's pocket-sized book is a handy argument-enhancer, packed with hundreds of quick facts in crafty presentation, all of them reliably sourced. Get the book, win arguments."--The Republic (Vancouver, BC)

"As soon as I saw the striking cover of this book, I was driven to read it. This book is inspiring."--NEXUS, Camosun College's Student Newspaper (Victoria, BC)

"This is the kind of book everybody should have in his or her possession. Thanks, Mr. Lester, for laying the facts on the line. But even more so, thanks for the resource."--Indie Workshop.com (Clive, IA)

"Great little book and a great idea! Loved it and will use it!"--Libby Davies, Member of Canadian Parliament

"It's actually a quite entertaining... thanks to David Lester, now you too can use facts to back up your political arguments. And because all of the royalties go to the Canadian Centre for the Victims of Torture, I can say 'go out and buy this book' and not feel the least bit guilty." -- Impose Magazine, (New York)

"A package of hard numbers encased in simple statements is all it takes in David Lester’s The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism to make a powerful agit-prop tool out of a small book. Like an unrelenting Michael Moore in print, the type is crudely designed to make the numbers jump out. Readers may end up seething at the corporations and sickened by celebrity-economics after grazing this little book....Whether it is billions spent on birthdays, weddings, and bombs, or lives lost to poverty, poor medical care and low education scores, these are the statistics of a world where equality has been forgotten in the celebration of excess.”--New Internationalist (England) Rated: 4 out of 5 stars

"Charming in its clarity and understated simplicity of style, and adorned with pleasing and poignant artwork."--Briar Patch magazine (Regina, SK)

"If only every household in North America had a copy of this book on its living room coffee table." --Wonka Vision Magazine (Philadelphia, PA)

Reviews of Art:
“Looks like it was smudged over the page with a kind of accidental precision that turns the mundane into the sublime.”—Hal Niedzviecki, EXCLAIM

“A collection of funny, surreal illustrations. Lester’s insights make him a kind of alterna-editorialist.”—MAGNET MAGAZINE

“Uses a vital combination of drawings and prose bits to break-down literary pretensions.”—BROKEN PENCIL

“He creates a whimsical collection of one-panel images, many of which would be much more refreshing to find in a daily paper than Gary Larson’s old tricks.”—DISCORDER

“ ...a witty collection of Lester’s illustrations in a variety of graphic styles that make pointed commentary on favorite topics such as conformity vs. identity, forming relationships in a society that communicates via the Internet.”—THE PROVINCE (Vancouver daily newspaper)

Publisher:
Get To The Point Publishing (founded 1993).
“The future of publishing has arrived, born into the world by publishing houses with names like Get to the Point...”—CANADIAN BOOKSELLER MAGAZINE, 1999
Titles include:
Keys To Kingdoms -- Bud Osborn, winner of the 1999 City of Vancouver Book Award
I Can Hear Me Fine -- Jean Smith's first novel, 1993
Black Milk -- Catherine Owen
No Masters! No Gods! -- Norman Nawrocki
Out of the Missed -- David Pritchett
What the Wind Brings -- Chad Norman
Family Swan -- Jean Smith

Music:
Mecca Normal Album Discography:
The Observer (Kill Rock Stars) 2006
Janis Zeppelin (Smarten UP! Records) 2004
The Family Swan (Kill Rock Stars) 2002
Who Shot Elvis? (Matador) 1997
The Eagle And The Poodle (Matador) 1996
Sitting On Snaps (Matador) 1995
Flood Plain (K) 1993
Jarred Up (K) 1993
Dovetail (K) 1992
Water Cuts My Hands (Matador) 1991
Calico Kills The Cat (K) 1989
Mecca Normal (Smarten UP! Records) 1986

Other Albums:
Hundred Block Rock -- Bud Osborn Band, 1999
The light changed before I could blink -- David Lester solo guitar, 1998

Selected Music Reviews:
“Through 8 albums over 10 years, Mecca Normal have presented a consistent, evolving, and luminous challenge to the reigning social order.”—ROLLING STONE

“His ruminative playing ably suits her unusual, nearly tactile vocals.”—MOJO

“When the mix is between brainy lyrics and a meaty beat, between mind and body, pleasure and awareness-—that’s when Mecca Normal revs up. Like Odysseus, they have a clarity of vision that’s rare.”—VILLAGE VOICE

“David Lester and Jean Smith generate huge power with limited means.” —SELECT MAGAZINE (ENGLAND)

“A two-person guerrilla campaign against apathy.”—MELODY MAKER (ENGLAND)

“...stark and breathtaking.”—PULSE

“Forget Rancid, Offspring and Green Day. Forget the Sex Pistols. The most important punk band of the 90’s is Mecca Normal.”—SACRAMENTO NEWS & REVIEW

“Who Shot Elvis? simmers with captivating parables that knowingly portray regular folks and their deepest passions.”—RAYGUN MAGAZINE

“Neither Smith nor Lester has gone soft, yet the new “Who Shot Elvis?” is quieter and more nuanced.”—WASHINGTON POST

“Oh, what a lovely sparse sound”—NME

Related Films and Videos
KRS Video Fanzine #3 DVD 2005
Shield Around the K -- DVD (secretly Canadian) 2004
Try This At Home 2001, documentary on the Yo Yo Festival
Hundred Block Rock 1999 (shown on ZED-CBC TV; selected for the Vancouver Video Poem Festival)
Shield Around the K, documentary on K Records, 1999
I Wanna Be Adored (Emotion Films) 1998
Down Here (Eldorado Films) 1997 Soundtrack by David Lester
Harakiri (Germany) 1994 Mecca Normal performance
Terminal City Ricochet (E Motion Films) 1989 Graphic design and title logo.
Halt (Independent Animation) 1983 by David Lester
Change Is How You Act (Independent Animation) 1982 by David Lester

Television Profiles:
“Actually I like crap” t-shirt featured on ZED TV (CBC) 2005
Vicki Gabereau Show (VTV) 1998
Much Music 1998 and 1993
BCTV News Hour 1993

Radio Airplay:
CBC (Ideas, Nightlines, Brave New Waves)
BBC (England)
Bavarian State Radio (Munich, Germany)
NPR (U.S.A.)
Austrian State Radio (Vienna)
College radio all over Canada, U.S., New Zealand and Europe.

Mecca Normal references published in:
I, Shithead by Joe Keithley
She's a Rebel by Gillian Garr
Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From The American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad
History of Canadian Indie Music
We Want Some Too by Hal Niedzviecki
On The Road To Nirvana by Gina Arnold
Spin’s Alternative Record Guide
Rock She Wrote edited by Evelyn McDonnell & Ann Powers
Vancouver Book by Chuck Davis
Trouser Press Record Guide of Music of the 90’s

Selected Performances Highlights:
What The Heck Fest (Anacortes, WA) 2005
Xeno Gallery -- "Inspired Agitators & the Pantomime Horse" opening reception, 2004
Interurban Gallery -- "Drawing Resistance" touring art show, 2003
Word On The Street 1999, 2002, 2003
CMJ (New York) 2002
Ladyfest (Olympia) 2000
Vancouver Folk Music Festival 1999
Shawnigan Lake Writers Festival
Bumbershoot Festival (Seattle) 1998
Sechelt Writers Festival 1996
Special performance for German Futurists as part of Talk With Tomorrow (New York) 1995
Fast Forward Festival (Holland) 1994
Yo-Yo A Go Go Festival (Olympia) 1994, 1997, 1999, 2001
International Pop Underground Festival (Olympia) 1991
La Quena Festival (Vancouver) 1987
Ultimatum Poetry Festival (Montreal) 1987

Performances Highlights -- playing with Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Jad Fair, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sleater-Kinney, Unwound. The Ex, The Fall.

Classroom Presentation Highlights
"How Art and Music Can Change the World":
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver
Burnaby Central High School, 400 students, Burnaby, BC, May 7, 2004
St. Vincent College, poetry class, La Trobe, PA, 2002
Chatham College, sound art class, Pittsburgh, PA, 2002

Other Career Highlights:

* Professor Denis Rancourt, University of Ottawa, ends a lecture by quoting from my book The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism. 2006

* Raising $1000 in royalties (From the Gruesome Acts of Capitalism) for the Canadian Centre for the Victims of Torture. 2005

* Franklin University (Columbus, OH) uses one of my paintings (Conflict #1) for a course on Global Cultures. 2005

* The University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah) uses 2 of my paintings (Conflict #1 and #2) course called Conflict Resolution. 2005

* The Network for East-West Women-Poland (an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations) uses my Conflict #1 painting on for an article on Crimes Against Women. 2005

* The University of Colorado (Boulder) uses my painting Conflict #2 on their webpage for a course on Social Problems. 2005

* Interviewed in Punk Planet Magazine and online by Visual Resistance and by Pacifica Public Radio’s KPFA. 2005

* "Noir Canada" graphic short story becomes part of the Comic Art Collection, Michigan State University Library (Special Collections Division). 2004

LINKS:
David Lester Drawings and Design

David Lester Paintings

Newtopia Magazine Article on David Lester

"Inspired Agitators & the Pantomime Horse" -- Art Exhibit

"How Art and Music Can Change the World" -- Artist Talk and Classroom Presentation

Mecca Normal

Mecca Normal Newsletter

Mecca Normal Reviews

Interview with David Lester:
Visual Resistance


David Lester's Paintings and an interview by Newtopia Magazine