Another visit to Salvation Mountain via East Jesus

As you know...my son and his longtime girlfriend are down at Salvation Mountain.  They continue to work on the infrastructure of this wonderful folk art destination while trying to create art themselves.

Just today, Adam sent me a link to East Jesus, another destination not far from the mountain.
Charles Russell, a talented artist and one of those guys who masked a mostly kindly nature with humorously misanthropic exterior, found a spot just north of Salvation Mountain, named it "East Jesus" in a nod to its remote location on the way to nowhere, and moved in.
Unfortunately, Russel died of an unexpected heart attack in his mid-40's, leaving his work of art.

Take a look at this video and take in how an outsider's art can take shape in the desert.

I hope to take another trip down to visit Adam and Kristin in November to visit "East Jesus".

http://vimeo.com/2071843

Kristin Kuhns

arrived today...ready to paint.

It didn't take her long to lay down her base color...orange!

Next she began her images.

with layers of color.

The palette

Kristin's red stitched line (this time using paint)

The three squares so far.

Thank you Kristin for hanging with us today.  Great fun at the gallery.

Stop by to see her newest painting from the show.

Meet Anna Magruder

On Tuesday, Anna Magruder came and painted on our "Face the Public" painting.

She began by sketching out her square in pencil.

Before we knew it, we had guests coming into watch Anna paint.

Anna's question to us....Am I suppose to be having this much fun?  We said yes!

We love seeing her palette of colors.

We even pulled out a chair so we could tell our visitor about this great project.

Anna added a finishing touch to the painting...notice the small face?  Because Anna creates painting from old photos, this seemed fitting...could this be Vincent?

This is the painting that Anna has in the show....love this and we LOVE Anna!  

Face the Public!

Our new show "Face the Public" is set up and ready for the artists to arrive.

We started with Robert Schlegel because he's planning a trip to Europe and needed to paint his square early.

Friends of the gallery came by just to see Bob...These lovely people own one of his paintings and wanted to see Bob in action.  

We love taking shots of the painting palette and paints.

Here is a close-up of the finished square.

This is the painting that we have on display for Bob...

"Horse with Orange"
3' x 4'
$1900.

We've been bombed...in a good way.

Julie, (who has a studio in the upstairs next to the gallery) decided to bomb our tree with her wonderful yarn.

She first spent some time out front (with Meg watching), doing her knitting in long sections.  

She then sewed them together onto the tree.  We love it and thank Julie for her "creative bombing"!

If you are interested in visiting her studio (we think it's fantastic) and would like to know a bit more about her painting classes, stop by gallery and we'll introduce you!

Salvation Mountain

On our month off from the gallery, we traveled down to California to visit our son Adam.   He and his long time girlfriend Kristin have taken on the task of helping preserve Salvation Mountain, an awesome arts destination.  We love their compassion for the arts.

The hot temperatures, the vivid colors and the size of this incredible mountain... it just took our breath away and no words can even describe this folk art treasure. 

Salvation Mountain is an art installation covering a hill north of Calipatria, California, near Slab City and just several miles from the Salton Sea.  It is made from adobe, straw and thousands of gallons of paint.  It was created by local resident Leonard Knight, and encompasses numerous murals and areas painted with Bible verses.
In December of 2011, Leonard was placed in a long-term care facility in El Cajon for dementia.  Concern has been raised for the future of the site, which requires constant maintenance due to the harsh surrounding environment.
Many visitors bring paint to donate to the project, Adam and Kristin have been working to protect and maintain the site since early July.

I couldn't stop taking photos, there was color everywhere!

The Folk Art Society of American has designated Salvation Mountain as a National Folk Art Site.  

Worthy of protection and preservation...yes it is.  (You can donate to the site by going to https://www.facebook.com/SalvationMountain/info

Inside were tree branches winding up and through each other.  Leonard inserted each of these and painted them with so many colors and patterns.

On site were many vehicles that Leonard lived in while at the mountain.  He carried through his painting on each one...inside and out.  We even looked underneath and saw that he also painted the undercarriage!

This was where Leonard slept for many years while care taking the mountain.

 While we were visiting Adam, we saw many people pull up and walk to the top of the mountain.   Adam would talk with them, tell them Leonards story and invite them to walk around.   This visitor was from Poland.

Many people loved seeing Leonard when he lived there, this was a small drawing left in Leonard's trailer.  

This is one of the many trucks Leonard painted...not an inch was untouched by his paintbrush.  

Just a sampling of the paint that has been used on the mountain...gallons and gallons.

We were told that Leonard was given a truckload of caulking.  He used this to get a raised effect when painting over the adobe.

Inside sits a lonely chair where many people have their photo taken when visiting...I was one of them.

That's me.

This is the natural shower.

Here is a photo of a photo showing Leonard when he lived at the mountain.  

Adam and I rest at his trailer...I think it was close to 106 degrees that day.