This is a portrait of MaJo Keleshian that my father drew in 1980 to 1981. It is certainly the largest, and most ambitious portrait my father ever drew, measuring roughly 4 by 5 feed in size.

MaJo was an artist that lived in the same general area of Maine as we did. My father used to say when speaking about MaJo, who like him also grew up in New York, that she used to proudly say when she lived in New York she was only Keleshian in the Manhattan phone book. MaJo was of Armenian heritage and grew up in Washington Heights.

After my father died in 2007, I asked MaJo to send me her recollections of David and the time spent posing for him, as I was then, and still am, planning to write a book about my father at some point. Here is what she wrote to me in 2013.

"Hello Soren,

I have fond memories of sitting for the portrait, but I don't have specific information about the number of times I sat…

Now my recollection is that I was waitressing at MacLeod's (a restaurant in Bucksport, Maine) and your parents came in, maybe once a week or so, for lunch and occasionally for dinner. I often waited on them–they were good tippers! At some point, your father asked me to pose. I believe I sat two or three times a week over a 3-month period. He paid me, I'm pretty certain it was $3 an hour–welcome additional income for Sylvester (MaJo's husband, the poet Sylvester Pollet) and me. It was wonderful to go to the factory to pose. I think arrived around mid-morning and David would draw until lunch time. There was always fresh French bread and cheese, salad, a bottle of good red wine. And always good music. I remember mostly classical, but there could have been jazz too.

Then, more posing after lunch. I may have been there a total of 5 or 6 hours, including lunch. Your mother was usually at home so she may have more information too.

Good luck with this fun, daunting, and wonderful project,

MaJo (with the capital "J")"

Her is a sketch of MaJo drawn by my father 2 years after the large portrait in 1983.

Sadly, MaJo died in 2023. I didn't know her that well. I was mostly away at University when she posed for my father back in the early 80's. But I did meet her again in 2009 when she worked at the University of Maine at Orono and they hosted an exhibition of David's work, and I remember her then as a very kind and decent person.

For more information about MaJo, Carl Little has written a wonderful tribute here about her.

Soren Larson