Once you are able to look past the incredibly unique and captivating artwork of Slab City, you see the people.  Their art is a brilliantly clear display of the values that have united into a community passionate individualists from across the country and beyond.  This relatively new bricolage art tradition, as composed in Slab City, demonstrates how material text can represent values in a way words may not be able to.  Debora Kodish says that it is important to "create contexts where people can speak for themselves" (436).  Although she is referring to best practices of folklorists, her preference for openness and understanding seems to be shared by the Slab community.  Part of the experience of visiting is meeting the residents and taking in the art in its many contexts, including the city's architecture, legal status, lack of infrastructure, and desert setting.  And of course, if one were to decide to truly become a part of the community, all that is needed is the will to live in intense conditions and a pledge to respect the people and land.

     Richard Handler and Jocelyn Linnekin (1984) describe tradition as something that is fluid and not strictly defined by the past; it is a "continuity of reference" that is "constructed in the present" (286).  The bricolage art style in East Jesus, including the method by which materials are found and the pieces are constructed (as spurred by Leonard Knight and refueled by Charlie Russell), represents a clear tradition in line with that definition.  The community has embraced an art tradition that is extremely unique in every instance.  And in doing so that tradition is slightly redefined from a more modern perspective with every new piece, yet the broader values expressed by the tradition remain constant: individuality, creativity, sustainability, and critique of modern society.