Salvation Mountain (49)

I've known about Salvation Mountain and the man who has made it his life's work, but I had never visited it before. We went by as a "cultural sidetrip" during a daylong exploration of the Salton Sea for my winter birds class at the local community college. The man who created this extravagant work of folk art wasn't there when we stopped by, but we wandered around a bit and I took some photographs. The part that fascinated me the most is what the artist calls the "museum."

It's built from hay bales and "tire trees" and has windows set into it in high places and odd angles. I also loved the ongoing feeling of the project, of adding here and painting there. It lit up the part of me who longs for hands-on artwork, and I marvel at the scope and longevity of this project. I tend to let the biblical verses trip me up, but my sense is this labor goes beyond its base of Christianity. "Leonard just wants everybody to get along," our instructor said. "He's just about the nicest man you could meet." Maybe one day I'll go back to meet him. [The "official" website is here for anyone who wants to peruse this a bit more: http://www.salvationmountain.us/.]