The Top 100 of 2011

Four ink drawings, 02-03-2012

 Berry van Boekel: Top 100 2011

Swing Space Gallery

1556 North High Street
Columbus, OH 43201
614.292.0234 (phone)


Monday, March 26–Thursday, April 12
Reception: Monday, March 26, 5­–8pm 

The four ink drawings I did tonight look like trading cards the way they're laid out. I think it would be so awesome to print all hundred as trading cards. I collected football (soccer) cards for many years so it would be right up my alley. The reasons for suddenly shifting from medium size canvases to ink drawings on paper are many:

•  They can be done rather quickly, given that I still need to paint 40 paintings to have exactly 100 come March 26, it keeps me from having deadline stress
• Commercial: drawings like these I will sell rather cheaply—I'd like earn a little bit of money at the Top 100 exhibition
• Convenience: I've been working construction full time in order to convert a garage into a studio, it is hard then to do the work of painting in the evening—drawings can be done at the dining room
• I felt like doing a few that are immediate, without the option to rework and rework and rework

The four musicians portrayed are all recent arrivals into the list of 100 songs. They have in common that they have English as their language, and they've all passed away.

Jim Carroll —one of those cult figures, really well known in the artsy circles, that I had never heard of. A poet and a post-punk-rocker he died on 9-11-2009. My fiend Jake is a big fan–I borrowed a couple of cds.

• King Stitt —another one of those, I only learned of him after he died. This happened just a few days ago. Winston Sparks aka King Stitt was a pioneer Jamaican DJ. Nicknamed the Ugly One for his disfigured facial features he is credited as one of the first performers of 'toasting', a sort of rapping, in the 1950s.
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1935-1977) —Pedal Up is a repeat from last year's 100 and the fourth Kirk tune in this year's. I have the song on his Bright Moments 2LPset but I prefer the live version performed at Down Beat in 1975.
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973) —A short outtake of Up Above My Head featured in the wonderful French film Amélie. Her name was not credited at the end but I recognized (be it not immediately) the singer.