Silk broadcloth, silk Indian Doupioni, polyester batting, rayon/viscose and polyester thread.

Where did the Kings River go? is part of a series about confluences of bodies of water that no longer exist due to human impact. The Kings River was one of four rivers feeding Tulare Lake, the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi. The lake was a seasonal lake, sometimes drying up in the summer, that served as an important stop on the Pacific flyway for migratory birds. Historical accounts describe farmers walking up to the shores and scooping up buckets of clams, terrapins, mussels and perch. During the 1800s, the lake was gradually taken over as farmland by diking the rivers and diverting them into irrigation channels. By the 1920s, the entire lake had been converted to farmland. This artwork shows a birds-eye view of where the Kings River ends as a free flowing river and is diverted into irrigation channels. There is a current proposal to bring back Tulare Lake as a way to solve some of California’s water storage and ecological problems.