Artist Ruth Amster was born and raised in New York. She attended New York's High School of Music and Art. She said she dropped the ball on art, as she majored in srt History at the university on Maryland. She arranges docent tours for the Smithsonian Institution. She and her husband, Dolph, came to Ridgecrest California due to his connection with the Naval Base in Ridgecrest. They made themselves at home in the desert, and drove to many places for Dolph to take photographs, and Ruth to paint. Ruth started a docent program for the local Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest. She traveled to the nearby Owens Lake for two years to capture the essence of the Lake and had a show of those paintings at the Maturango Museum in 2003. The book is from a recorded interview Ruth gave in 2003, and a U Tube video done by the Museum. It features a comparison of Dolph's photos and Ruth's paintings. It shows a sample of Ruth's work.