Aside from doctor's visits and weekly services at the Mineral Springs Baptist Church, Murray lived in virtual isolation for the remaining two decades of his life.
[5] After a decade of living alone, Murray dislocated his hip, and was forced to retire from farming and seek new existential perspectives.
His first creations were shrinelike piles of found materials, rocks, and other debris strategically placed throughout his yard to repel evil that Murray believed loomed over all facets of life.
Other artists from northern Georgia, such as Eldren M. Bailey, Dilmus Hall, Ralph Griffin, and Howard Finster all created prominent yard shows.
[5] In 1978, Murray experienced a religious vision while watering his potatoes which inspired him to produce a remarkable body of abstract paintings and drawings in the last decade of his life.
Seeing an eagle descend from the sun, Murray believed that he had been granted a privileged religious insight, which was to be the inspiration for his work as an artist.
As a part of the process, Murray kept a bottle of what he called "holy water" on a table by his bedside, which he would raise towards the sky whenever he prayed.
During the last few years of his life, as his reputation as a mystic grew, Murray would receive visitors on his property who requested ritual readings of the holy water.
This process of automatic writing was recorded in a documentary directed and produced by Judith McWillie of the University of Georgia toward the end of his life.
Islamic traditions in western and northern Africa venerate writing, studying and memorizing the Koran and other sacred texts as a power bestowed on man by Allah and can constitute forms of worship.
Furthermore, some Afro-Islamic mystic leaders dissolve the written words of sacred texts or the name of Allah in water then pour the solution into a small vial, which the practitioner drinks or wears in secret around their neck.
[7] In his own way, and without lending credit to the similarity, Murray reflected these Islamic practices when he wrote his prophetic "spirit scripts" and interpreted them through his small glass of water for visiting practitioners.
He also believed that destructive evil spirits populated the world, and thus much of the artwork he created served a protective purpose.
However, as his notoriety progressed, a small group of private patrons began exchanging his completed paintings for new supplies and discouraging him from engaging with other interested collectors.
[7] Art historian Mary Padgelek, who wrote a book about Murray's life and works,[7][17] has also written a musical about him: Visionary Man, which was presented at the Hudson Mainstage Theater in 2014.
[7] This and Murray's increased exposure to medical drawings and hospitals, in accordance with his treatment, altered his work in the last four to five years of his life.