An in-depth conversation with biographer Spencer Kansa on two of the most fascinating and creative figures in the history of Bohemian LA!
Marjorie Cameron (1922-1995) was an artist, poet, actress and occultist. Her marriage to maverick rocket scientist (and fellow follower of Aleister Crowley) Jack Parsons put her at the center of alchemical L.A. in the 1940s and early 1950s. Following Parsons’ death in an explosion in 1952, she embarked on a lifelong spiritual quest expressed in her dazzling and hypnotic esoteric artworks, appearances in films (Curtis Harrington’s The Wormwood Star and Night Tide with Dennis Hopper) and more.
Burt Shonberg (1933-1977) was one of the premiere psychedelic and esoteric artists in L.A. in the 1950s and 1960s, a close friend and associate of Marjorie Cameron’s (who turned him on to the teachings of the Edwardian magus Aleister Crowley and introduced him to the mind-warping properties of peyote.) Shonberg also embraced the Fourth Way system of Gurdjieff, and his canvases began to reflect the mystical illumination inspired by his higher states of consciousness. His work was prominently featured in Roger Corman’s Vincent Price-starring horror film The Fall of the House of Usher and on the walls of venues like the bohemian coffeehouse Café Frankenstein. His gorgeous, otherworldly paintings of mythical creatures in fantastic landscapes have only recently begun to attract the attention they deserve.
Spencer Kansa is the biographer of legendary LA-based artists Marjorie Cameron (1922-1995) and Burt Shonberg (1933-1977) and author of the novel Zoning. His interviews with literary icons William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles and Herbert Huncke feature in Joe Ambrose’s book, Chelsea Hotel Manhattan.
Wormwood Star: The Magickal Life of Marjorie Cameron by Spencer Kansa
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