Earth's Scribe : Artist Harry Orlyk
by Ross Rice
“I was privy to the land as being sacred, living very close
to native people, going to a sun dance that really changed my life,
my perspective on what I was destined to do with my life as a painter.” This
contact also had the unexpected effect of sending Harry back to the
region just northeast of his birthplace.
“This land has somehow drawn me. [When in Nebraska] I really startedpaying attention to my dreams, which is a very Native American activity, and
dreams brought me back. I would have dreams of meetings with ancient longhaired
dark people who would come to say to me: pay attention, something’s gonna
happen, don’t close your mind. A few days later I had a dream I was with my daughter,
who wasn’t even born yet, and showing her: look down in the ravine, at
the white deer with the green antlers.”
Harry and Donna saved enough money, and made the move east. Starting
in Baltimore, and working their way north, they got to Salem, New York
where they found a house available on Blind Buck Road. “I didn’t
even look at the house when we bought the place, I went out to the
bridge, looked down at the trout in the stream, and realized this would
be the place I would spend the rest of my life! And then to find out
that the place is so much associated in the local lore with this huge
white deer that used to be seen up the road. There were so many crossovers
with dreams that I’d had.” Dreams that
he had meticulously recorded in a journal, every day, since 1970. Harry
had been paying attention, all right.
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