a Canadian Artist -Salmon Harris

Back in the very early 197's, my then-husband, Michael and I took several trips in our camper VW van across the United States and across Canada, East to West. On one of those trips, we picked up three hitchhikers, not an uncommon thing to do in the trusting 1970's whe so many young people had hit the open road for adventure and travel. We dropped off one, a Quebois whose name I no longer remember, but we kept two and brought them to New Jersey with us for a visit. We had picked them up while headed West and they had taken us around near Vancouver. We visited an artists home and studio, and we hiked up a mountain.

The mountain hike was a disaster for me. I was trying to be strong and equal so I carried my own backpack and I wore new hiking boots. Soon, I was left behind by the two Canadians who wore sneakers and carried very light. I labored the rest of the way in pain, out of breath from the high altitude and with bleeding feet. When I got to the top, I was rescued by a band of women Scouts who took off my blood soaked boots and socks, cleaned my feet and bandaged them while Mike and the Canadians went fishing. They had brought a pretty young woman with them who pranced up the mountain unburdened by anything, like a young mountain goat, free and happy.

I didn't hold a grudge or resentment, but I was sad and I did learn a lesson. I carried too much and since I wasn't as strong as the others, my ex having been in the military and trained for long hikes with heavy packs, I was a fool to carry as much (or more) than they did.

The Canadian artists were a tall, twiggy fellow with a long curly mop of red hair named Salmon Harris. He looked a lot like Bert Lahr as the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz. The other artist was a handsome blonde with a large sailing ship tatooed on his chest named Christian Schmidts. They were slyly humorous, good natured, and full of fun.

One of the things I admired most about them was that they had created a fictional vacation camp called Camp Camosun and they had printed bumper stickers and other paper art in relation to it: envenopes with a line drawing of a dog, a scattering of stickers, a World War II airplane for one. I may still have these items lost up in the attic.

I thought this was such a fun and clever kind of art project. They stayed with us in Collingswood for a couple of weeks in our top story apartment with the small landing that was perched into a tree canopy. It was summer. I can't remember a lot from that experience, but I think we took them to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Also, while they were with us, I had gotten an IUD inserted at Planned Parenthood. I had been told it was relatively pain free.

We took LSD while they were with us, and my IUD wasn't at all pain free - it was agonizing as my body attempted to eject the foreign object. My LSD trip was filled with malicious monkeys jeering at me from the tree canopy off our landing.

Over the years, we heard from them by mail. Once about ten years ago, I looked up Salmon Harris and got in touch with him. He was working as a storyboard artist for the film industry: 2010 The Twilight Saga - Eclipse, The Grey 2011 and others. He also published a book of his Art Work which is now out of stock on amazon and for $95 via Diatrope Books. We kept in touch a bit and when I next heard from him he was working as a tax collector in rural British Columbia so that, as he put it, he could be near his son who lived there. The last time I heard from him via e-mail, he was in advertising, developing souvenir materials for tourist development in Summerland, BC. H had, allegedly founded a company to that effect called Samalot. Of course, who knows if that was even true! I sent him some mail there but it was returned as undeliverable. I never heard from him again.

Yesterday, while I was watching a series of natural disaster documentaries, one about snowboarders was set in British Columbia and I thought of Salmon Harris. I googled him and a notice in a Canadian artists' registry gave his death as January 6, 2022. He was born in 1948, three years younger than I am. I couldn't find any more information about him at all, no obituary. I couldn't find anything about Christian Schmitz either. I did find out that Salmon Harris's real name was Frank G. Prodnuk at his graduation from Vancouver School of Art.

It i an all too common event for me now that I look up old friends and find they ahve died. It shouldn't be surprising as I will be 80 on my next birthday and by my age, a lot of people die. I was sorry that I lost touch with Salmon Harris. His comic spirit and his artistic talen were bright like 4th of July sparklers. I remember both of those young men, both young and beautiful, lithe and joyful, ready for life and adventure and full of creative energy and good humor.

During one of my searches, years ago, I had been able to find some of his film storyboard work. I wish I had it in my photo storage but it was long ago. I would have posted it here. He does have a listing in the Internation Movie Database under artists for his film work. Sorry to see you go Salmon Harris - Happy Trails!

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