Claire

This is one of my oldest friends, Claire, and her guide-poodle, Hope. They came to see me on their way from Arizona to Nelson, British Columbia. Claire and I raised certain hell had some adventures when we were in our misbegotten youth. We met at Paolo Soleri's Cosanti Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1967. There were only 8 architects there then and I made the 9th as bell-caster. My real job then was TV Art Director and producer for a new independent TV station in Phoenix. I made an earth house in the desert behind Cosanti. Eventually, I left Cosanti to start another station in Calif. with my boss. We had finished the plans for Arcosanti and Paolo bought the land for it. Claire stayed and Cosanti grew to be Arcosanti, The City in the Image of Man, just north of Scottsdale. We reunited again in Calif. and New Mexico to do a documentary on Georgia O'Keeffe....that's another long story involving Miss O'Keeffe, Janis Joplin and her clothing designer......what a long, strange trip that was.
Years pass, I'm in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Montana. Claire is amassing degrees like donuts at a Krispy Kreme...and a couple of kids, as well. She's aces at writing grants....even got one to document the gestation and birth of her first-born. She winds up teaching at McGill in Montreal. One terribly snowy night, this kind-heart stopped on the freeway to help a stranded motorist and she was hit by a speeding car. Many broken bones, including an open skull wound, several strokes and many years in and out of hospitals have not reduced the spirit of my good friend. She's mostly blind but still reads and writes voraciously with the half eye she has left. Hope (dog) translates streets for her. A recent fall broke her femur so the white cane has to be a white crutch. Meanwhile, she travels between Arcosanti and Canada and stops here on her way.
My old friend....we built a city once.