Johnson John !

It’s difficult to describe all I was feeling, wrapping up my first workshop, leaving Bishop and driving back to Venice. I had gone to this first workshop thinking I was going to take these boys to school. Needless to say, the outcome was quite different. I found myself in a room full of really smart people, way over my head, but made to feel welcome. The friendships I made here, continue on to this very day. After getting back to Venice, my next nine months were spent making photographs and learning to “print”. In July I headed off to Taos, New Mexico for my second workshop, I chose New Mexico, having lived in Albq. a few years before, falling in love with the high deserts of the Southwest. While back in Chester County earlier in the year,my friend George and I had made plans to roam around the Southwest. We would meet up in Taos after the workshop and drive North West to the town of Cortez On my trip out, I had stopped in Canyon De Chelly,spoke with a guide,and arranged for George and I to spend a few days backpacking on the reservation. We spent a couple days in Cortez resting up and cleaning up and then headed off to Canyon De Chelly. I found the guide, but his price had changed for the worst. George and I talked it over and decided “we were getting out of there”. Driving out the north road we pulled off at Antelope House Overlook, I would stay with the cars while George hiked out to the overlook. Coming here a few weeks before I was amazed by this place, and by the amount of time George was gone, wandering around, I’m sure, he was pretty amazed as well
I spent my time talking with a Navajo Woman by the name of Joanna John. She was set up in the parking lot selling her art to visitors. You know, I felt pretty comfortable, this seemed a lot like Venice. She told me how they spent summers in the Canyon farming, she spoke of the problems on the reservation caused by alcohol, we talked about schools, we talked about jobs. We were there a couple hours talking while George walked around the canyon edge. When he finley did get back I know the three of us talked for another two hours. At some point Joanna had asked about our plans. When we told her we had plans to backpack but that our guide had raised his price, she flat out said “my father has a canyon, he’ll let you go there”. It was about 1:00pm and she told us to come back in a few hours to the house in the back of a group of houses that we would see, as we pulled onto the main road. For us to just to wait in the car and someone would come out and meet us. You gotta have a lot of faith to follow directions like these, and we did! Things were working out.