Massachusetts artist Burt Proctor's life was one of divided interests. As a teenager Proctor identified within himself a love of the West and journeyed to Wyoming to see the West as the U.S. emerged from the Great War. He was sufficiently enchanted by what he saw that he worked for a time at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Proctor also showed an early ability to draw. As an adult he worked in Los Angeles and in New York as a commercial artist as did so many great artists associated with New Mexico's original art movement.

When his love for the West gained the upper hand within him, Proctor resigned his work in advertising illustration and became a mining engineer so that he could travel in the West. At the same time he produced some of his best work as a painter of the desert, horses, and the people who handle them.