From Dumps to Dreams, collage on board with ink, watercolor, and enamel paint, 2009

"The great junk boat launch was quite an enterprise on the desolate beach where the Luck of the Irish once stood. A
group traveling North America in their city transit bus, dug up and fixed two local boats, built a wooden platform
spanning both vessels, added clusters of inflatable trash, affixed a mast and sail, and lastly painted their ship with
plans to sail the sea. People arrived from all corners of Bombay Beach to send off the young voyagers and wish them
fair passage in the lonely Salton. After a successful launch, apparentlyigthey ended up across the Salton Sea
somewhere near Salton City, and had to catch a ride back to Bombay Beach."

excerpt from the Bombay Beach Sentinel, January 2009

Napalm, the maiden bird upon the mast, kept an eye from her perch on the peaceful yet tenuous calm of the vast
sea before her.

"Only 10 days after arriving in Bombay Beach, we are floating on glass. Slowly we drift north along the coast, the
people who came to see it for themselves now disappearing into the horizon. We paddle in circles, singing sailor
songs, and lose ourselves in the big bowl of the sky. Only trains penetrate the quiet. They come and go for miles,
stretched out like lines of ants carrying their cargo along the
earth's curve."

excerpt from the article, From Dumps to Dreams, by Jamie Self
Read the whole article HERE.

Listen to this MP3 of a ballad written by Jamie Self for the Salton Sea.

Photo by an onlooker during the launch.

THE END, collage on board with ink and watercolor, 2009

Watch Mike, the pianist at the American Legion in Bombay, perform The Wind Beneath my Wings in this video.

Hope for the Best, pen and ink on paper, 2009