When the Beatles broke up in 1970, Jack Widmann was still a “Nowhere Man.” Widmann, now an assistant principal at Kalles Junior High School in Puyallup, wasn’t even born until 1976.
Yet the 1960s rock legends eventually launched him on a five-year quest. His mission: to produce a pen-and-ink mural inspired by their songs.
Widmann began creating his mural in 2001 as part of a master’s degree class on creative arts in education. Art has always been an avocation for the Puyallup High School graduate. A doodler and cartoonist since childhood, he took occasional art classes, but decided to make teaching his career. But long after the master’s class was finished, the mural took on a life of its own. He didn’t complete the work until 2006.
“The assignment was to stretch yourself personally and professionally,” the Spanaway resident said. “I usually do charcoal drawings that I like to complete in a day or two. This was to see if I could go beyond that.”
Fully assembled, the mural measures 91/2 feet by 5 feet. It is made up of 190 6-inch paper squares – 189 of them containing drawings inspired by Beatles songs. His stark black-and-white drawing style is vaguely reminiscent of the Beatles’ “Revolver” album cover.
The final square of Widmann’s mural is his artist’s statement on what the work of the Beatles means to him.
He grew up listening to his own generation’s grunge rock, but he also paid attention to his mom’s vinyl Beatles LPs. And – like so many second- and third-generation fans – he fell in love with the music of the Fab Four.
Some of the mural’s squares and their song titles are easy to decipher; others are cryptic to all but devoted Beatles fans. Each contains Widmann’s own spin.
“Paperback Writer,” one of Paul McCartney’s short-story songs about a writer who needs a break, is illustrated with a quill pen and a pair of glasses of the type John Lennon popularized in the late 1960s. “A Day in the Life” recalls lyrics torn from a day’s headlines. But Widmann drew the square shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, so the figure reading a paper in his drawing is staring at that terrible day’s news.
The mural’s title, “I Am Saved,” is not a religious reference, but rather a reply to one of the Beatles’ most famous songs and albums, “Help.” In the 1965 song, composer Lennon begs for psychological first aid from the depths of what he later described as fame-induced depression.
In a nod to the “Help” album, Widmann’s mural superimposes four shadowy figures of the Beatles over his artwork. The figures are based on the iconic “Help” album cover, in which the Beatles form a twisted, not-quite-right image of the word with their bodies.
As a school administrator who is often in the position of doling out disciplinary decisions, Widmann encounters plenty of kids in need of help. He likes to talk to them about the importance of following your dreams.
For him, part of the dream was getting to work with kids. But art is another piece of who he is. And so too, he says, are “the lads from Liverpool who took music to a whole new level.”
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
ON DISPLAY
You can see Jack Widmann’s Beatles mural, “I Am Saved,” at 6 p.m. Friday at the Liberty Theater in downtown Puyallup, 116 W. Main Ave. The mural will be up for a Puyallup Main Street Association event.
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