I think the desert landscape has been very much misunderstood.
The desert far from being dead is a highly living entity, varieties of colors in the
desert that if you pay attention and really look at it you can enjoy it.
The colors themselves don't change, it is merely the impression that changes.
My name is Harry Somers and I'm a 19 year old artist.
I think Harry's life and its meaning has been to bring beauty to people.
I only like to paint beautiful things.
This is a very large one.
I create my work in order to create a certain amount of calm in other people
and I want to bring out some of the beauties of our world.
They make people think back to a time when they didn't have to think about death
and when they didn't have to think about saying goodbye.
There are some things that stay with you for a long, long time.
One of the last survivors.
I was born with the name of Hans Simon on May 28, 1922.
I remember my parents very well. They were very hard working people, very kind.
My first memories are when I was approximately three years old when I got a new suit.
Everything was wonderful until Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.
Then all of a sudden things gradually changed.
A group of children followed my father and threw rocks at him.
My parents got many telephone calls, get out of here, you dirty Jew, you lousy Jew.
We had these calls practically every day.
November 10, 1938. This is where the real problem started.
My father made an arrangement for me to become a baker.
I had an appointment with the bakery at 8 o'clock in the morning
and I got there about 10 minutes of eight
and I didn't want to wait in front of the restaurant because across the street
was a store that sold stamps.
That incidentally saved my life because as I looked at the window,
all of a sudden a huge crowd came along.
They passed store after store after Jewish store and completely destroyed them.
They dragged some Jewish men out of the streetcars, beat them up completely and killed them.
For the first time in my life that I saw someone killed.
All the synagogues were burned, all the Jewish shops were destroyed.
In the days thereafter, my ears rang of broken glass.
I had a one-track mind. Survive.
I packed my bags, went to the railroad station in Frankfurt
and there opened up my suitcase in order to get rid of a small handgun
that I had received as a gift.
Any Jew caught with the gun would be executed immediately.
As I opened the suitcase in order to take it out,
one of the Nazi SS looked down into my suitcase.
I was able, however, to hide the gun in a scarf which I took out.
I looked at him, smiled and I said,
well, you know, it's very cold, I think I need a scarf.
He nodded and somehow or other was distracted, walked away.
I closed the suitcase and all of a sudden I became very hungry.
I saw a Frankfurter stand and purchased two Frankfurters
and believe me, they were the best Frankfurters I ever had in my life.
I was part of the children's transport.
I lived in England at the time except the 10,000 children
and I was lucky enough to be part of it.
They few tears were shed when I left my parents.
Needless to say, all the people are left.
I was part of the camps.
I was heartbroken, that's all.
I cannot say anything else.
It is not that you lose faith,
it is that you lose your belief in an entity called God.
Harry came from Germany to England and the children's transport, so did I.
I went through the same camp initially when we arrived.
I think he had a choice that he could make at the time
because I know I was given a similar choice.
He could either be interned in England
or we could be sent overseas to British crown colonies.
A few weeks later, there was an offer made for 20 Scholar ships
to young men my age to study agriculture in Australia.
I applied and I was one of the lucky ones who was accepted.
None of us really spoke English
and so how do you study agriculture when you don't know English?
The professors at the agriculture school insisted
that as they were lecturing, each of us sit next to an American student
and that is how we learned the English language.
I came to New York in 1946.
That is where I met my first wife.
Dorothy was different.
My wife had come from a concentration camp.
She saw her friends being killed.
She knew about the ovens
and yet she lived with high hopes.
We think ovens found each other
and after three months we were married.
Both of us came to this country without a penny
and we needed more money.
I worked for 48 hours during the week at the Habadash Restore
and probably another 20-someone hours selling insurance.
Luckily for me, I had also started painting at that time.
My first painting was called Flight.
It was a terrible painting
because it reminded me of concentration camps
and Jews fleeing Germany.
One day my wife saw my paintings
and said, you are good.
Let's go to a gallery.
I went to a top gallery on Madison Avenue
with my paintings.
Somehow rather I didn't have the guts to go by myself
so I needed her literally to hold my hand
and lead me into the Vercel Gallery.
Vercel said to me, do you paint any landscapes?
I was painting landscapes in my life
and I said, of course I know how to paint a landscape.
He said, bring me about six landscapes
during the next week or two
and show me what you can do.
So I went home and I painted six landscapes
and I took them there.
Vercel said, how much do you want for them?
I was giving them for nothing if he was willing to show me the gallery.
I didn't know what to say.
He said, I'll tell you what, I'll pay you $35 each.
I gave you a check for $210 right now.
And I'm standing here with $5 in my pocket
and my wife $2.50.
I remember my first show, Vercel published
a black and white catalog, no color.
And on the first page, he had nine pictures of my paintings
and someone came into the gallery,
saw them and bought all nine of them
before the show even opened.
Another one was a show I had painted, a painting that I hated
because I worked too hard on it
and I wanted to destroy it.
And my wife said, don't destroy it,
it's the best thing you ever did.
Mrs. Kohler, she paid, I believe, $3,500 for the painting.
And my wife was quite enthused
and she agreed that under the circumstances
it would be a good idea to quit my job.
He has got an enormous talent, Harry.
It's a natural talent that he's got.
He is very creative, he has some very beautiful paintings.
And I think he had a unique talent.
And to develop it after what he had been through
is quite remarkable.
As light changes, sort of the painting way off.
By the way, you may not realize
the painting does change slightly in color the older it is.
The painting theoretically takes one year to dry.
It will dry within a few weeks
that you can touch it, no problem.
But it becomes real dry only after one year.
And chemically, it may take up to 100 years
for painting to dry.
If you take a bunch of paintings
and put them into a dark, hairless room.
After one year, they were black.
When Dorothy came down with cancer, she was in Florida.
And when she knew there was nothing more they can do for her,
she took it like a champ.
She did call me a few days before she died to say goodbye.
That was rough.
I never ever had anybody call me to say goodbye
because it was the end of their life.
But that was Dorothy.
I learned a lot from Dorothy about attitude, forgiveness.
There was a time when I hated, and believe me the hatred hurt me
literally, physically.
Hatred is a burden.
It's a tremendous burden.
I like to stay away and enjoy things in my own quiet way.
When I paint, I shut down and I live in an entire different world.
The Hospice of the Valley has 16 palliative care units,
and all of these patient rooms need to be decorated.
My job is to make sure that families and patients have something beautiful to look at.
And Harry called me and said that he had art.
I explained to him I need pictures full of life and color.
And his paintings were a carousel and a picnic.
Things that people love to do.
People can relax and enjoy them.
My weeks are numbered.
And I try to live them as best as I can.
You're a man who is facing death, and I don't know how many days he has,
but he's thinking of how can I share more?
There's only one way to live your life, and that is positively looking forward.
I am blessed that I am here at a time in his life when he does not have to face this journey alone.
I like the whole unencumbered Joyce.
She's a wonderful wife, friend, lover, supporter, companion.
Harry is so full of life.
I mean, I just think he's going to go on forever.
He says, what would you do without me?
I said to him today, you'll always be with me.
I said it right to him.
I said, I have an icon on my computer.
I see you there.
You will never leave me.
You will always be there with me.
No, I have no fear of death.
No, I do not fear it.
No, I neither fear it nor welcome it.
I accept it.
I think I'm leaving a certain legacy behind me.
People look at my painting and like it.
I never painted anything ugly because I don't believe in it.
People who buy my paintings, they see something beautiful.
And that is my answer to terror.
Harry's artwork will definitely be in our palliative care units forever and ever.
Once a donor has given me a piece of his life as Harry has,
it will be enjoyed by people for a very long time.
I was influenced by Harry, by his positivity, by his lack of fear, by his courage, by his love.
You know, we go through our lives and we never really think about the end,
which is a nice way to live.
But it's also something that's really important that we know, that we accept,
that we feel we're going to be able to handle it.
If you love something, pursue it.
Give it the best you can.
You take the steps and you keep on going and you keep on going and you keep on going.
And that's where happiness and fulfillment lies.
What makes a happy life?
How should I put it?
If you see goodness, you have happiness.
The colors themselves don't change.
It is merely the impression that changes.
I've seen the desert when it's red.
I've seen the mountains turn blue.
Have I been here before?
Have I been here before?
The birds fly overhead.
Countless patterns that they flew.
They have been here before.
They have been here before.
The few plants that grow.
They've stood the test of time.
What secrets do they know?
What secrets do they know?
Crescent moons make me sad.
Something's missing from the hole.
When will it be full?
When will it be full?
I've seen the desert when it's red.
I've seen the mountains turn blue.
Have I been here before?
Have I been here before?
I've had the stars are dead.
Passing in and out of view.
What secrets do they know?
What secrets do they know?
The cruelty makes me sad.
Something's missing from the soul.
When will it be full?
When will it be full?
I've heard my mother's death.
Passing in and out of view.
What sadness I have felt.
What beauty I have known.
I've seen the desert when it's red.
I've climbed a mountain no one knew.
I will come here again.
I will come here again.
