West Texas

The closer we got to Texas, the more we recognized our surroundings.

Niall was raised in San Antonio. I was born in Austin and lived there and San Antonio as a little girl. My dad, extended family members of mine, and almost all of Niall’s family live in Texas. We have a  bumper sticker on our car that says, “Native Texan.” So, it’s a very familiar place to us.   

I love Texas. Maybe I strongly disagree with the dominant political beliefs there, but I appreciate Texas pride (and have some of it myself). I love that it’s a huge place and there’s a great variety of places to explore.

I fell hard for West Texas while we were there.

There’s a lot of art happening in the tiny town of Marfa.

First of all, there’s the permanent sculpture, Prada Marfa, outside of Valentine, Texas. We had fun doing the above photo shoot.

It’s so extraordinary – to come across this structure on a stretch of lonely highway, with the wide expanse of earth all around you, in the middle of nowhere. It’s starting to get slightly run-down and become part of the environment. It’s had a couple of problems with vandals, but both times it’s been repaired and continued on.

The Chinati Foundation is a contemporary art museum in Marfa.

It’s mission is “to preserve and present to the public permanent large-scale installations by a limited number of artists. The emphasis is on works in which art and the surrounding landscape are inextricably linked.”

This mission is based on the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd. We visited the Chinati (the venue is interesting in itself because it takes up 340 acres of an old military fort). We explored the free outside installation, which fits right in with the Chinati’s mission.

These fifteen concrete blocks were made by Judd. They are surrounded by big sky, never-ending desert land, and tons (TONS!) of these fascinating grasshopper-like insects with red wings. It was hard to resist the urge to climb all over the artwork.

Judd really started the arts community here – moving from the New York City to Marfa in the 1970s and putting a lot of money into the arts there. He was brought there by the simplicity of the small town and the wide expanse of land to use for lasting installations.

Now, it feels like the place to be. We didn’t expect so many young, cool artists to be hanging around this tiny desert town. We both had to admit we were hoping for a bit more of the old, cowboy cool vibe. Though, I sure had a blast.

Supposedly I came here as a kid and it was a lot different back then.

Listen to an interesting story about Marfa here.