The Chicago Cubs have been called all kinds of names over the years, but “blockheads” is the one Thom Lessner has taken to heart. A self-taught artist, Lessner paints portraits of Cubs players on wooden blocks. His style is bold, cartoonish; sometimes his pictures look like the players, while other times they bear only a mild resemblance. Is that Willie Hernandez or Jose Cardenal? Only in Lessner’s world does Don Kessinger look like Don Zimmer–that’s part of the charm.
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“There’s a big sentimental aspect to it for me,” Lessner says. “They look sort of childish to begin with, and I feel like a kid thinking about it. I played baseball until eighth grade, but between the coaches and the baseball strike I started hating it. I got more into music and skateboarding. After the [Sosa-McGwire] home run chase of ’98, I got back into baseball.”
He uses plywood and two-by-fours he finds in the trash–“I don’t have a lot of money, I don’t make a lot of money.” It takes him a couple of hours to do a modest-sized block. All of his portraits are one of a kind. The thread that connects them can be seen in their beady eyes: appropriately, most of Lessner’s Cubs look shell-shocked.
He’s becoming a hot prospect in the Philadelphia art community; his portraits have shown at the Spector Gallery, Space 1026, and 1 Pixel. He made his Chicago debut in February at the annual Cubs Convention at the Chicago Hilton & Towers, where he sold more than 40 pieces. And last Saturday he had a booth at Collect-O-Rama, an art fair organized by Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Jon Randolph.
