To support herself, she worked as a secretary at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum before receiving a scholarship from Yaddo and moving to upstate New York.

In painting I never liked the staid and static, always looked for what would change the source of light and stance, using glitters, glass beads, luminous paint, so the camera was a natural for me to try—but how expensive!Menken and her husband Willard Maas began a well-respected avant-garde art group known as The Gryphon Group in the mid-1940s.

[7] Menken and the Gryphon Group began to produce numerous short experimental films around the time of Noguchi's release.

She also began to experiment with various types of animation techniques, including collage and stop-motion cinematography, owing to her background in painting.

[2] Lights, shot in New York City's quietest hours over three consecutive Christmas seasons from 1964 to 1966, is known for Menken's technique of "night writing".

Menken was known for her association with and influence on many of the leading members of the movement, including pop artist Andy Warhol, painter and experimental filmmakers Kenneth Anger and Stan Brakhage.

Menken later appeared in several Warhol films, including Screen Tests (1964), The Life of Juanita Castro (1965) and Chelsea Girls (1966).

Reflecting on the context within which the film was made, Menken shared:I was working on something … for Noguchi, some special effects for The Seasons, a ballet by Merce Cunningham with music by John Cage, and while I was experimenting around, I had the advantage of looking around Isamu's studio with a clear, unobstructed eye.

[15] In an effort to express how she felt while looking at Noguchi's sculptures, she began dancing among them, capturing her own movements, affections and rhythmic encounters with the environment.

This is a historic role that some (including film scholar Melissa Ragona) have argued limits the critical contribution of Menken's practice, reducing it to a means of contextualizing (and bolstering) Brakhage's position in the history of experimental cinema.

Indeed, Menken herself responded to Brakhage's determination by reminding him that "There is enough English poetry to read in a lifetime, why bother with attempts at translations from other languages?

The film featured Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Gerard Malanga, Jonas Mekas, and Marie's nephew, Joseph J. Menkevich.