Art: A Way of Life

Recently I watched the film Amorgosa, a documentary about Marta Becket an artist who mid-life moves from NYC to create an unusual world of her own in the Mojave Desert. Marta landed in the Death Valley Junction while on tour in 1967 and she's been there ever since. In February of 1968 she performed her first show in front of a dozen people. Lacking the crowds of NYC Marta designed her own audience on the walls and ceilings of the opera house. Over four years she painted herself kings, queens, musicians, artists, and a world of past figures. Forty years later she's singing and dancing. Eighty years old and she's still practicing her art, it is truly her life. I have just a sliver of creativity and like most of us don't use it often enough. Marta Beckett is truly inspirational - create, create, create just for your own pleasure.

One other thing that struck me about Amargosa is that Marta said in the film she remembered being born. You could brush that comment off as part of the mysticism/ghosts etc. which the film spends a few too many minutes on, but then the other day Ray Bradbury said the same thing in this New York Times article A Literary Legend Fights for a Local Library so who knows? But then again Ray Bradbury also appeared in Amargosa so maybe they're in cahoots!