Swing Street

Thelonious Monk
5.5" x 8.5"
watercolor and pen on paper, 1995

Saturday is the last day before Hopkins Hall Gallery closes their doors. The long lasting gallery serving the arts at the Ohio State University ceases to exist and will morph into a smaller space off campus. It's name will be Swing Space but I will not be a part of it. I've worked 12 years at Hopkins Hall Gallery and I put in my resignation this week. I will seek part time teaching opportunities in my new home town of Fort Myers but no more exhausting gallery jobs for me. Painting is what I want to do more of. Of the shows that have passed through the gallery over the years one was called Swing Street, all about jazz: jazz paintings on the wall, live jazz music, and when there was nobody performing, sounds from the radio show Just Jazz with Ed Beach was heard over the speakers. Packing up the Hopkins Hall Gallery archive these tapes with Ed Beach's Chicago based radio show popped up. I copied one, somewhat randomly from the stack of ten: Thelonious Monk 1947 – 57, Pt. 2. So nice to hear all these great Monk tunes again. I hadn't listened much to his music for a long time and it was certainly enjoyable to pick it up again. What a genius! One exciting track after the other, and the one to top the top 10 list this week is an old favorite of mine called Blue Monk. While packing up the archives at work I also started to pack up my own archive of Top 100 materials. And what pops up? A reproduction of my illustration for Blue Monk done in 1995! I can't pass up the opportunity to score with the goal wide open, can I? Keep throwing me those bones, please.