Seriously. The Dancing Bean Ranch.

I finished graduate school and moved to Seattle so many years ago that we still wrote letters to each other. I came home one rainy Seattle night to find a delightful surprise in my mailbox: a letter from Chris Knop (Kallenberger), now beginning her career at Philbrook Art Museum in Tulsa. Looking forward to one of her always witty letters, instead I read two pages of complaints. Mostly, she hated winter. Belying her gloomy tone, however, she'd drawn beans, complete with jazz arms and legs, boogying across the page.

That letter was a keeper. I always had the feeling that someday I was going to do something with those dancing beans.

(That's a current photo of Chris, by the way, with her sock monkey scarecrow.)

Dancing Bean Ranch? Seriously? Part I

Where did that name come from? people ask. And what about that logo? Generally I answer, "It has to do with my college nickname."

With the caveat that what happens in college stays in college, here's (some of) the story:

Back in the early 70s I was Bobbie Baker, a student at the University of Oklahoma. A friend and fellow history major named Michael Masterson, (who has grown up to become an LA-based creative consultant) invited me to a party. He told me to bring food to share. He failed, however, to mention it was to have been finger food.

I showed up with a pot of baked beans. With no forks, spoons or plates in sight (this was a college party, after all) people ate my beans with taco chips. I even received compliments on my "dip."

Michael, never one to resist the opportunity for alliteration, began calling me Baked Beans or Bobbie Baked Beans Baker. The name caught on, especially among our circle of friends. They included an organ major named Gary Johnson, now an LA based editor/writer and musician (www.conjuntojardin.com). Elementary education major Nancy K. Dillon, now a Seattle based musician (www.nancykdillon.net ).And finally, art history major Chris Knop, now Chris Kallenberger, Director of Exhibition and Collections, Philbrook Art Museum.

Chris is responsible for our logo. But that's part II.