04/09/2025
** WHEN THE SEA WAS THE ART - gallery opening this weekend, Saturday Apr.12, 3-6pm at Bombay Soleil, 2126 2nd St., Bombay Beach, CA **
At last!! When I purchased this house in 2018, my immediate dream was to have a gallery space here, where I could exhibit and share my Salton Sea works. I never had lighting in the ceiling, or the money or time to actually make the space work in that way. Hurricane Hilary meant tearing apart 2/3 of that space and rebuilding, so in that way it was (eventually) a blessing: I now have track lighting and fresh walls! The space isn't totally done yet, more plans in the making, but it's good enough. So finally, I am sharing my Salton Sea color works created between 2005-2007 here, in a gallery opening as part of this weekend's "Convivium" community art celebration! (Convivium is this year's equivalent of the Bombay Beach Biennale, just a scaled down, local version). If you are in the area, drop by! We will have live music and drinks for you to enjoy, too.
About the photos:
The images in “When the Sea was the Art” were created when the flooded Salton Sea was early in its recession, before Bombay Beach itself became a canvas for artistic creation. It was eerie and peaceful in the mid-2000s. The shoreline was a watery wasteland, but nature’s reclamation of what was once a bustling beach resort created strange beauty: half-sunken telephone poles reached skyward from the sea; trailers exposed to the elements revealed remarkable textures and colors; crimson pools of cyanobacteria-saturated water dotted the landscape; barnacle-encrusted objects emerged from dark waters in the harbor; a salt crust coated the lamp posts at the abandoned boat launches.
This collection of 17 works, 20” x 30” color digital photographs mounted on aluminum dibond, are from the “Promised Water, Promised Land” exhibition at the Art Gallery of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. They have been exhibited in various shows in Canada and the US since their gallery debut in 2011. Created between 2005-2007 during the artist’s early visits to the Salton Sea, the works mark her creative transition from black and white infrared film photography of Joshua Tree National Park, to her color digital work at the Salton Sea.
