By the Time We Got to Woodstock

“By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration”
Joni Mitchell

Holly and I made the trip to Woodstock on Saturday to hear photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum speak at the Center for Photography www.robertglennketchum.com . He is one of the leading voices of the conservation movement and is one of the most respected environmental photographers on the planet. If you can think of a superlative, it applies to him and his work. So, he was leading a workshop there and part of the deal is that the Center has the workshop leaders give a lecture on Saturday night. It’s open to the public and so we decided to go. It’s about 2 hours, maybe a tad longer, and not a bad drive, even if you take the long way.

After running errands in the morning, we headed out just past noon with the intention of meandering our way to NY. Everything was going along just fine and then….. SURPRISE! We’re going to CLIMAX! It was all I could do to hang on to the steering wheel. Thank goodness Holly had made the trip before and knew what to expect, but I was not quite prepared.

Anyway, the town of Woodstock is a hoot with everyone trying to purchase a bit of the cashay, dahling of the ever so trendy happening that is still Woodstock. Mixed in are the burnouts who never could quite bring themselves to leave. It’s hard to walk the streets and keep a straight face.

The lecture began more or less on time and was definitely worth the drive. One of the very cool directions he is moving in is tapestry. He has been working with the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute in China for a number of years. The embroiderers actually take his images and copy them exactly into tapestries, some of which are 6’x14’. I have only seen images in his book Regarding the Land . Pretty amazing stuff.

That;s about it for now. I gotta go find my tie-dye and love beads.