LENO PRESTINI....Thunderhead

The Artist: Leno Prestini 1906-1963

A very famous artist once lived here in the northwest. His name was Leno Prestini, and being of Italian decent, he came to the U.S. with his parents at the age of one. He was a self-taught artist, a modeler of Terra Cotta, a bricklayer, underwater diver, prospector, and a soldier in World War II.

Interesting that before World War II was ever conceived, he created several paintings that depicted the war in vivid detail. The government confiscated them, believing him to be a spy.

It was his "thought pictures" that caused the most consternation in the public eye; his choice of topics were disconcerting and caused a feeling of uneasiness in many viewers of those times.

He was somewhat of a loner, who loved to roam the surrounding mountains and valleys on his horse. He also liked to take off for days at a time to ride the rails, visiting with friends in distant places.

The "Devil's Merry-Go-Round" (1959) is a particularly vivid and action oriented painting. The colors red and green, opposites on the palette, are used a lot, and seem to indicate aggression and evil in this particular painting. The merry-go-round is actually a gold wedding ring. The clown, a male figure, is in for a ride. His facial expression suggests he would like to get off of it. However, He has a bottle and money in his hands, perhaps signifying his demise. His eyes are closed, as though he hopes to wake up from the experience. The woman is depicted as a type of temptress, pouring wine on his head. The Devil is shown making music while concentrating his stare on the woman, as though he is controlling her. Pitchforks support the canopy. The entire merry-go-round appears to be spinning in space. In the background at left, doom in the form of a skeleton horse and rider is in pursuit of the couple. The recurrent symbol of a pitchfork and a painter's palette are drawn on the horse's hindquarters. These symbols appear in several of Leno's paintings. His western paintings were usually subtler in color, form and content. His most famous western was "Ghost Riders in the Sky."

Further examples of his work include murals and facings made of terra cotta, decorating numerous courthouses, city halls, and schools throughout the northwest. The Davenport hotel is also decorated with his work.

My father was a close friend of Leno's for many years. He introduced my mother to him after they were married. In an interview, she said that she remembered Leno as being a very dynamic, extremely complex, and talented person.

Having a great admiration for the Native American people, they were often the subjects in his paintings. He always wished he had been born one. He carved a sixty-foot totem pole, and it was donated to the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds in 1965.

When my parents would visit Leno, he would often present a new painting. He would define every symbol and detail in the painting, many which might ordinarily go unnoticed. He made them feel as though they were watching a movie, taking sometimes a half an hour to translate with various emotions, what the painting symbolized to him.

Leno never married, and although he refused to speak about why many of his paintings included an evil red-haired woman, it was believed by many that this red-haired woman was someone in his past that broke his heart. My father hinted to my mother that the rumor was true. The window shade on the door of his studio depicted a red-haired woman as well. She was frozen into the ice of a pond, with a man who looked like Leno skating on her face. It was very eerie and he never would explain what it meant.

An unpublicized and little known secret about Leno is that he suffered with bouts of depression and eventually committed suicide. It was by a gun shot to the head. Perhaps "Devil's Merry-Go-Round" was the painting most representing his hidden mental torture.

Numerous paintings and other works of art created by Leno can be found on display at the Keller Heritage Center and Museum in Colville, Washington, donated by his sister, friends, and the Clayton Museum.

~Thunderhead

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