I first exhibited a portrait of David Johansen by the legendary photographer David Gahr at “The Cool and The Crazy” exhibition at Govinda Gallery in 1996. Later on, I got to meet David personally through his wife, the photographer extraordinaire Kate Simon. I featured Kate’s photographs at her Govinda Gallery exhibition “Rebel Music: Bob Marley and Roots Reggae Music” in December 2004.  Not many people know that David Johansen was a talented painter, and I had the great pleasure of visiting him at his studio in Woodstock, New York.  

David was visiting Govinda Gallery one day in 1997 and he accompanied me as I went to pick up my son, David Murray, after school.  My son is a fan of David Johansen’s and knew his music and enjoyed his acting with Bill Murray in the film Scrooged.  As we pulled up to my son’s school, Johansen was in the passenger seat and rolled down the window as my son walked to the car and said, “Are you David Murray?!”.  My son was pleasantly surprised!  David Murray is now the Administrative Director of Govinda Gallery. 

It was my great pleasure to host Jerry Garcia’s first exhibition of his art in November 1991. That exhibition was brought to me by Nora “Sage” Murray, a close friend of Garcia, who assisted him with his art.  Nora brought Herb Greene’s photographs, ‘Portraits of the Acid Age’, to that Govinda Gallery exhibition as well.  It was an incredible opening night and an extraordinary exhibition.

In 1998, I presented a one-person exhibition of Herb’s photographs titled, ‘The Acid Age of San Francisco Rock’.  That exhibition featured Greene’s extraordinary photographs of The San Francisco Music Scene as well as the street scene in Haight-Ashbury during the sixties.

It is with great pleasure that I remember these two dynamic and creative individuals, David Johansen and Herb Greene.