East Jesus
/Trek Date: March 23, 2015
I recently had the opportunity to meet up with my cousin, Karen of the North Country, at the Salton Sea Visitor Center. There are a lot of interesting things and places to visit in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern California, and we had the entire day to see what we could find. Our travels eventually led us to East Jesus, which curiously enough, is located near West Satan.
So I'm pretty sure I have your attention and I know you're wondering, so I'll tell you.
East Jesus is an "experimental, habitable, extensible artwork" which has been in progress since 2006. It's a unique refuge for artists, musicians, writers and wandering geniuses, located precisely at the edge of the world. The inhabitants are guided by several core philosophies, such as "do as thou wilt," and "do no harm."
We pulled into East Jesus at just the right time. A free, guided tour was about to begin. I'm not sure how often these occur, but we were definitely fortunate to be able to join the small group and gain a little more insight into the artist's creations that populate the refuge, as well as visit areas that are normally off-limits to visitors. It would be easy to spend most of the day at East Jesus, examining all the art and talking to the folks. All in all, amazing.
Here are some of the pieces that caught my attention.
