How did I get here to the old Andrews Schoolhouse? Well, it’s a bit of a story… We’ll have to travel back in time a bit here.
First, my trip to Tibet in 2003… While hiking to the high overlook at Lhama Lhatso—elevation 14,800 feet—I asked the sky, the Cosmos, “if ever there is a place like this (but closer to Costco!) please, I would like to live there someday”.
The inspiration for this piece happened one morning after Zazen practice. James Martin was staying here at the old Andrews School for a few months, working on preparing potential photographic images for two books I hope to create. We also practiced Zazen most mornings in the schoolroom. It was after one of these sessions that I saw what was the beginning of this painting: James was wearing his all black hipari…
“MY LIFE IS LIKE A DREAM,” John Simpkins has said of his isolated existence in the ghost town of Andrews, Oregon, in the most southeasterly corner of Harney County. He lives there with his poodle, Phoebe, in an abandoned teacherage and works in the old stone schoolhouse, a good three hundred miles round-trip from the nearest grocery store. The closest community is Fields, population eight.
