From Lar Wolkan | Delaware, OH

“Joseph S. Wolkan was many things in his life… a WWII Navy Vet, a Jazz musician, an art professor at Mount Union University, the husband to my mom, Elizabeth Weber-Wolkan, but to me, he was my dad! Dad taught me early about art and music to the point I became a musician/artist. Dad was mainly a landscape artist, but he did do some fantastic cubist paintings in the 1950’s including this wonderful painting of jazz musicians.

When dad passed away in 1999, my mom let each of us kids pick a piece of dad’s art. She went by age, so my brother (the oldest) picked the musicians painting. I was a bit jealous but was glad that it was staying in the family. 20 years later, my mom was going through some of dad’s things and found an early study of what later became that painting rolled up for almost 70 years. Mom gave me the fragile drawing and I had it archival framed and now hangs perfectly in our house among a Miro, Pettera, Kandinsky and others.” - Lar

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