"Miss Orange" Paints the Town Red
Justine Sutton, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
Santa Barbara News-Press
June 23, 2006
Jill Katz and Bob Blackwell met on a blind date . . . someone else's blind date. Brought along by their respective friends as backup, the two discovered they had common interests in art, design and small business ownership -- hers in Web development and costume design and his in commercial and fine art photography.
Tonight, they will unveil their art book, "Miss Orange of the Salton Sea" at a book-signing at SOhO.
The project began two years ago when Katz made a green bubble-wrap dress and wore it at Solstice. "I said, 'We should go photograph that in the desert,' " Blackwell said.
They had been trying to come up with a way to mesh their skills but had been unable to find just the right opportunity.
"Meanwhile," Blackwell said to Katz, "I kept bugging you to go to the desert and do a photo shoot, remember?"
"Finally I said, 'OK, let's do it,' '' she said. "It was the weekend before New Year's Eve (2005), and he said 'Bring all your costume stuff and we'll go down to the Salton Sea and take some shots and see what happens.' ''
Arriving after a grueling six-hour drive, Katz recalls being less-than-enchanted with the location.
"He's telling me, 'This is the spot -- it's beautiful!' And to me, there's nothing significant about it, except the horrific smell . . . like death. It looks like you're on a white sand beach, but when you look closer, you realize it's not sand -- it's decayed fish bones. And there's a scary-looking trailer park and what looks like a methamphetamine lab on the corner. It didn't feel safe."
The Salton Sea, a 45-minute drive south of Palm Springs, was created when irrigation canals were breached in 1905 and water flowed into the dry valley. Resorts for boating and water skiing sprang up after World War II, only to be abandoned when the flow of water was finally stopped and the lake began to stagnate, becoming highly toxic due to chemical runoff from the valley's agriculture. Today the tiny town of Bombay Beach remains, supporting fewer than 1,000 residents and the Ski Inn, a local bar.
Over the next rise, Blackwell showed her another spot he had in mind.
"And that was amazing," Katz said. "It was like a city that had been abandoned and has been decomposing . . . rotting in the sun for the last 40 years. Totally post-apocalyptic . . . and that's when I got it -- how beautiful it was, in a completely surreal and odd way."
They shot that evening at sunset and all the next day, and then drove home. Katz was moved to write the story of Miss Orange, based on some colorful characters they encountered at the Ski Inn.
"The story was amazing," Blackwell said. "It really captured our experience there."
But after piecing together the story with the photos, they decided more shots inside the Ski Inn were needed to complete the story. Katz reluctantly agreed to return two months later.
"I was afraid we would get beaten up," she said. As it turns out, they couldn't have gotten a warmer reception. "Miss Orange became a local celebrity in Bombay Beach. The community was amazingly welcoming."
"We ended up adding two more stanzas after that. That second experience completed the story," Blackwell said. "To me, this whole project feels like a gift. We couldn't have planned it . . . it just unfolded."
They both said they feel that not only have they created something unique, but that it carries an important message.
"Patience and acceptance of others is what Miss Orange learns along the way," Blackwell said.
"The very first day we were there," Katz says, "a man pulls up next to us in a Corvette, and there we are photographing a green bubble-wrap dress, and he looks over and says, 'Well you're certainly teaching me not to take things so seriously.' So there you go -- our message is, be accepting of others and learn to laugh at yourself."
Click here to view photos from the book signing.
