Celebrating Black History Month in Milne's Gallery

Milne Library's Gallery is fortunate to be showing the work of local Rochester artist Denise Logan throughout the month of February, in honor of Black History Month. Don't be fooled! They may look like photographs, but they are not.

The Art of Jazz is a collection of original illustrations of several blues and jazz musicians including greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday as well as Wynton Marsalis and David "Fathead" Newman (who passed away on January 20, 2009).

The works are created using both pen and ink, a Wacom tablet, and a Mac. Previously featured in the Democrat and Chronicle's "Artist Spotlight", Ms. Logan has been a graphic designer most of her professional life and finds this kind of illustration to be a natural progression in her work. She hopes to begin expanding into more abstract subjects in the future. You can learn more about Denise and her work on her website.

Jazz is a uniquely American musical art form with its origins deeply rooted in African as well as European traditions. Its influence is heard in most modern popular music, especially funk and hip-hop. If you've never given it a try, there are a variety of jazz CD's available for you to sample on the upper floor of Milne Library, right at the top of the main stairway.

You can begin by browsing the CD's, or go with a compilation CD like Smithsonian collection of classic jazz. Not sure how to find the Jazz titles without browsing through the entire collection? Try using GLOCat's Advanced Search to narrow your choices. Search "Jazz" as a subject keyword and limit the document type to "compact disc" as illustrated in the image below (click on it to see it enlarged).

Regardless of whether you stop in to view the finely detailed images, grab a listen to several Jazz recordings, or a little of both, we are sure there is something for everyone's taste and hope to see you here!