At the time of his death in Dallas in June 2012, the Texas-based painter John Wilcox left two unfinished canvases: Radio/Cell Tower (Mother) and Transmission Tower (Father). Begun in 2009, the paintings measure 50 x 40 x 1 inches each, and bear layer upon layer of white and deep blue acrylic, with each coat left to dry and then sanded before the application of the next. Wilcox had begun to engrave the painted surfaces with an awl, working from almost forty sketches and preparatory drawings that he had made for the compositions, but the paint had so hardened, and in the last years of his life the peripheral neuropathy that resulted from multiple medical conditions had so advanced, that he could no longer apply enough pressure to the tool. Although the canvases remain unfinished, the drawings reveal carefully proportioned, diagrammatic reimaginations of these monumental structures, at once fragile and totemic.