John Harvey of the Emergency Operations Office (EOO) has worn many hats over the years.
He owned the popular Line Camp nightclub in Pojoaque, which showcased familiar music groups such as Los Lobos, The Judds, Charlie Musslewhite, Asleep at the Wheel, Etta James and Jerry Jeff Walker. “I had always been interested in entertainment, the arts,” said Harvey. “I had a lot of enjoyment entertaining the people of Northern New Mexico.”
Among other endeavors, Harvey owned an accounting firm in Santa Fe and an art gallery on the City Different’s fashionable eastside Canyon Road. He was a part-owner of a Santa Fe company that builds V-8 powered motorcycles.
Harvey organized an exhibit of paintings at the Smithsonian Institution; the paintings later traveled overseas through the United States Information Service. He was a board member of the Draft and Military Information Service and testified before the House Armed Services Committee about the draft. He is a Vietnam-era veteran.
In the mid 1970s, Harvey, who is the acting EOO chief of staff, successfully led a petition drive in Santa Fe that garnered more than 15,000 signatures from people asking that state government convert the former St. Vincent Hospital in downtown Santa Fe into a nursing home. Harvey was appointed by then Gov. Bruce King to a commission that developed recommendations for uses of “the old pink building” as it is known to longtime Santa Fe residents.
The local newspaper, Harvey recalled, took photos of Harvey standing on the roof of the hospital holding the petition with the signatures billowing in the wind over the side of the hospital. The effort made national news headlines, Harvey recalled.
More recently, Harvey’s photos of wildlife were the subject of a gallery opening in Los Alamos. Gallery openings are common occurrences in art conscious Santa Fe, but this opening was special for Harvey, not so much because the public could see and purchase his photographs, but rather, because of how the proceeds will be used.
Photos of wildlife, which were taken in the backyard of his Los Alamos home – his backyard is certified as a wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation – were available for purchase at the gallery opening. “I have found the vistas of the canyon and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains beyond and to the east inspirational,” Harvey said in an artist’s statement at the gallery opening. The exhibition “Friends in My Backyard,” continues through Jan. 28, 2006 at HeidiAnna’s Gallery.
Harvey said 20 percent of the proceeds from sales of his photographs is donated to a planned learning center in La Colonia de Guayabo, a small village of about 1,200 in Costa Rica. One half of the learning center will be a library, with the other half offering computer work stations.
“The library and distance-learning center will offer young people and adults the tools to create a higher quality of life,” said Harvey.
The color wildlife photos include a gray fox, ravens, sparrows, coyotes, an evening dove and photos of the Sangre de Cristos.
About $1,000 has been raised to date, said Harvey. “But more important is that the gallery opening brought people together and raised awareness of the learning center. People are volunteering their assistance,” he emphasized, noting that volunteer labor, computer and engineering services have been offered as a result of the photo exhibit; construction of the learning center is scheduled to begin early next year.
Harvey said he found out about the learning center’s needs last spring while at a dinner. He said the Curtis Thomas Sheck Foundation, named after a Santa Fe youth killed in a car accident in 1984, has been raising funds for the learning center. Until last year, the foundation operated informally, gathering books, school supplies, sports equipment, maps and other resources wherever it could. At this dinner Harvey said, the idea of an art exhibition was sprung. Some people at the dinner expressed a fondness for Harvey’s wildlife photos. “Well, if they like them so much, let’s do a show,” said Harvey.
“I believe we need to give back to the community,” Harvey continued. “I hope that sharing my photographs will spread the joy, peacefulness and feeling of community that I have with the creatures of the Pajarito Plateau to the lives of others,” said Harvey. “I believe that if everyone looks long and deeply in their own backyards, they will find similar treasures.”
HeidiAnna’s gallery is located at 800 Trinity Drive in Los Alamos.
