China Ranch is an oasis in the Eastern Mojave Desert. Its only entrance is through a winding canyon formed by water and wind erosion 9-12 million years ago and still changing. Watered by the Amargosa River, which runs mostly underground to deliver cold water in the hottest and driest desert in North America, this place is a crucial wildlife habitat. The animal and plant species that live there, some of which are endemic, are protected by the area’s designation as national conservation land.
I created this mural on the farm to celebrate the stunning diversity of the landscape, from the rainbow mountains, clay badlands with their rocks and sheets of gypsum and selenite, to the date palms, cottonwoods, willows, beavertail cacti, brittle bush, and the constant shuffling in the desert shrubs of coyotes, birds, and hares.