Lady Desert pampered

Women restore sculptures in open-air museum near Beatty

By HENRY BREAN
REVIEW-JOURNAL

RHYOLITE -- On a hillside above a sun-bleached swath of the
Amargosa Valley, Las Vegas artist and gallery owner Marty Walsh
stood near the top of 16-foot ladder and scrubbed soapy water on a
giant pair of cinder-block breasts.

"It's spa day for the painted lady," said fellow artist Anita Getzler, as she held the ladder for Walsh.

And so it went during Saturday's Pink Lady Paint Party, an all-woman volunteer event designed to spruce up the largest of seven sculptures that make up the Goldwell Open Air Museum, about 115 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

After her bath, Lady Desert got the first of two fresh coats of Sinclair latex house paint -- bright pink for her skin, yellow for her hair, red for the pedestal on which she kneels.

"We're using the original mix from 13 years ago," said Las Vegas artist Suzanne Hackett-Morgan, who organized the paint party.

To reach the sculpture's rectangular, blond locks -- the ones on her head, anyway -- Hackett-Morgan had to climb the ladder, shimmy out onto Lady Desert's shoulder and lean into the wind with a paintbrush.

Back on the ground, volunteer Amy Noel sang a few bars of the Commodore's "Brick House" as she held the ladder.

The volunteers, all wearing pink bandanas, planned to spend the night in the nearby town of Beatty and finish their work today.

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(Above, L to R) After each gal took a turn utilizing a most awesome power washer, Suzanne Hackett-Morgan and Marty Walsh climbed up on Lady Desert's shoulders and braved 35 mph winds to paint the top of the sculpture. The wind was blowing so bad we had to lash the ladder to the sculpture! Amy Noel led the bucket brigade; Anita Getzler on ladder duty; Lady Desert all done after two days of restoration.

Below are prayer flags made by the PLPP participants (first row, L to R, Suzanne Hackett-Morgan, Jeanne Voltura, Anita Getzler, Marty Walsh; second row, L to R, Brenda Kearns, Terry Klouda, Gaea Ray, Amy Noel). These flags carried wishes for the furtherance of creative activity in the Amargosa Desert.