Episode IV - A New Hope

My time in Hinckley was really a time of renewal…I had a lot of time to think about what I really wanted to do, and what was really important. I did my arts and crafts thing to supplement my Social Security, and in my travels I made friends with a couple of fellow artists, Terry Karrow and Hauga (a very large Winnebago). Over time we became close enough that we each took some of all of our pieces, and sold them, giving the money to the artist who created the work. Terry was a specialist in ear rings, pipes, drums, tomahawks, and knives. Hauga was an exceptional artist…he carved stone, wood, antlers and moose racks, he painted turtle shells and deer-skins, and mad some beautiful ear rings in his own right. I continued to create more and more intricate mandalas and spirit windows, and I also began making medicine bags and sheaths for Hauga’s and Terry’s knives.

Terry and I could always account “to the penny” what we got for our projects, but that wasn’t the case with Hauga, most of the time by the time he got back he had spent all of the money that he had gotten from all of our projects. He would feel bad about it, and usually gave us a piece of his work that was worth three or four times the monies he had gotten for our projects.

I had met Terry on one of my many visits to the local hospital (I was “blacking out” periodically). He was working as an EMT and had transported me to the hospital a few times. He had been a medic in Viet Nam, and we developed a strong friendship…he brought me books on Native American crafts and the Voyageur lifestyle, Terry was about 45 at this time and was still “pretty wild and crazy”. Terry always said that he wasn’t married, but his wife was. He started stopping at my apartment at least a couple times a week…sort of as a “welfare check”…but really to just drink coffee and socialize. Terry got disgusted with never getting the money that he expected from the projects, and he was getting more and more out of Native American art and into pagan arts...he started making fertility goddess necklaces, and pentagrams and stuff that Hauga and I didn't even want to touch. Terry was convinced that he was a Wicca(male witch), and he ran off to Texas to a Rendezvous with a 25 year-old Lakota.

I met Hauga at the flea market. I told him that his art was way too classy to be in this environment…he needed to get it into galleries and specialty craft stores to make any real money. He said that he really didn’t know how to do that…so I taught him.

As I said Hauga could never truly account for what happened to the proceeds from the art sales, but I was pretty satisfied to be able to pick up a piece of art that was "way beyond my means", so we continued to work together.


...and that's the absolute truth...give or take a lie or two.



...more exciting adventures next time…