36" x 46"
Oil on linen

Bombay Beach is an actual place that sits on the banks of the Salton Sea in southern California. The 35 mile long lake is a huge migratory way station for birds because almost all of the wetlands they used to stop at along the coast as they traveled up and down the western seaboard were filled in for development. Also known as Lake Mistake, this enormous body of water was formed from 1905-1907 when the Colorado River burst through poorly built irrigation controls south of Yuma, Arizona and flooded the desert. Now it's fed by the surrounding Imperial Valley agricultural water run-off and because of ingredients in it like fertilizer has a very high bacterial count and not so much oxygen. So fish and birds die off by the thousands and sometimes cover the beaches. It's also saltier than seawater and getting more so.

I stumbled upon the place in 1998 and was first struck by the smell. We were the only ones at the visitor's center and the air felt like warm dirty socks. We pulled into the village of Bombay Beach and drove around this godforsaken trailer-ville that looked like a modern day ghost town. Only the flickering lights of a couple TV's showed any sign of life. The beach was lined with layers of orange and turquoise and chocolate colored foam. Where you could see into the water pinky beige gunk waved back. There were lots of rotted out houses and trailers submerged out in the lake to about the 4 foot level. A rusted out delivery truck was sunk in sand up to the dashboard. Dead fish lay along the water's edge.

Detail 1 & Detail 2 & Detail 3

 

Barbie sunbathes here surrounded by endangered plants and animals from the area.

Those in Italics are endangered.
..1. White Pelican- subject to massive bird die-offs
..2. Fulvous Whistling Duck
..3. Kangaroo Rat
..4. Desert Pup Fish
..5. Antelope Squirrel
..6. Long-billed Curlew
..7. Dune Primrose-endangered due to so much off-roading in Algodonnes Dunes
..8. Flat tailed horned lizard - They actually spurt blood out or their eyes when distressed
..9. Peregrine Falcon chick
10. Pelican chick
11. Collared Lizard
12. Snowy Plover with eggs and chick
13. SPF 700 sun-block
14. Barbie's FUN-mobile