Part of High Desert Test Sites’ Scout Residency, _Tender Tinder Tarot Teacher _chronicles a year of Eden Solas’ daily encounters with the new age, the desert dating scene, economic hardships, and small everyday trials and triumphs through her role of payday loan attendant in Yucca Valley, CA. Solas’ short stories touch intimately on the breadth of lives in the High Desert (including Joshua Tree and the surrounding region).
Launched in 2012, the Scout Residency program is dedicated to learning about the people and places that make up our diverse and ever-evolving high desert community. Unlike many residencies where an outside artist is brought in to a new environment to create a new work, the Scout program is all about learning more about the people and places that already exist in the community. Our scouts have been both visiting residents and long time locals who we feel have the ability to offer deeper insight into these people and places. The Scout book series, written by our scouts, document their experiences and personal histories in the high desert.