We're going to take a little detour from what we've been talking about for the past few weeks and observe a very different kind of artist; Leonard Knight.
Leonard Knight is a painter like Millais but aside from using a brush and a pigment dyed liquid as tools that's about as far as the similarities go.
Perhaps you've heard of it, perhaps you haven't. But if anyone reading this had read Weird US you might remember something about Salvation Mountain.
Yup, it is what it looks like. A giant hill covered in paint in the middle of a California desert near Slab City. But what must be admired is the persistence and dedication that one man has applied to this very personal statement of his beliefs for over 20 years.
Leonard Knight was born November 1, 1931 just outside of Burlington, Vermont. In 1970, after seeing a hot air balloon pass over Burlington, he decided it would be the perfect way to spread his message of love, and so, he decided to make one of his own. Fourteen years later in 1984, Leonard had a huge pile of patched fabric and hard work that, try as he might, would not fly.
He decided to take a different route. After the failed balloon, he decided to stay in Southern California for a period of time to create a a small monument to the failed, but loved, project. Eventually that 'small period of time' grew and grew and to this day he has never left. And after one more failed attempt, thousands of gallons of paint, and over 20 years, the mountain stands to this day and continues to grow.
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