English: No single event in the last 100 years has had such a dramatic and lasting effect on Bishop than the draining of Owens Valley. In providing more water for Los Angeles the result here was the loss of a vast fertile land. Here too, was a great loss of life and the loss of a great life. And here in the drying fields, a war of rights was waged whose embers still glow un-doused even today. These are historical facts.

Don't get me wrong; Bishop is an incredibly friendly town surrounded by majestic beauty. Yet the town was forever changed when the water rights changed hands.

In this piece entitled Drain, an agricultural Shangri La appears as a mural within a mural. This vision of the valley's past derives from old paintings and photos, book descriptions, interviews, and visits to the less affected areas of Owens Valley. Breathing sweet orchard blossoms while gazing at the lush glory of this place 100 years ago, this depiction is not meant to portray a specific vantage point yet rather allow the viewer an ambient experience of the ecology.

If your eyes are diverted to the drainpipe, this is by design. Like a black hole that allows no light to escape, the protruding drainpipe absorbs all color in its proximity. The odd shape surrounding the pipe is actually a preserved section of the under painting, but conceptually it serves as an afterimage, or 'ghost blotch'. It is a stain that is created by the absence of color information - or metaphorically, of life. Written words like 'water' and 'tree' or even 'green' are some of the sketch notes, but historically these are the line items that have virtually disappeared into the drain.