Tuesday, October 12, 2010

More pictures of Marfa

Tom also made a lot of photographs in Marfa, with his new digital SLR.  Here are some of them.

 This is Building 98, where the show of photographs about the Adobe Alliance is for the next three weeks.


 Building 98 has an interesting history.  It was the Bachelor Officer's Quarters for an army unit in the thirties and forties.  During WWII, some German prisoners of war were kept here, and they painted some murals about West Texas on the walls inside.

It's interesting to imagine how surprising the landscape of West Texas must have been to the average guy from, say, Bavaria.



 Below is a picture of Mona Garcia, the gallerist, and a board member of the International Woman's Foundation:





Here is the Arcon Inn, the bed and breakfast where we stayed, also owned by Mona Garcia:




It's conveniently located near the center of town, right behind the courthouse.  Speaking of which:










Monday, October 11, 2010

Trip to Marfa

Tom and I just returned from a trip to Marfa, TX. Our main purpose was to install an exhibition of my photographs about the Adobe Alliance and Simone Swan at Building 98, near the Chinati Foundation.  Building 98 is a gallery run by Mona Garcia.

Here are some pictures of the pictures:



This last one shows the group at the Adobe Alliance workshop in the spring of 2010.

It was Chinati Weekend in Marfa, and there was a lot to see and do.  We made the rounds of the galleries.  I was really impressed by the work of Claire Oswalt at Galleri Urbane.  She does wonderfully detailed graphite drawings, some of them quite small.  The tree picture is maybe 5x7 inches, and the head portion of the portrait is maybe an inch and a half!

The other thing to look at in Marfa, besides all the art, is just the wonderful light that bathes and beautifies everything in the town and on the streets, and also the wonderful spaces outside of town.  I found a footpath through a scrubby desert pasture, with a sign saying that people were allowed to walk there, so I did.






We also went to a football game, where the Marfa Shorthorns demolished the visiting team.  The band played "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas."  Some of the football players did double duty, playing for their school on the field, and playing in the band at half time.  People who live in small towns have to be multi-talented and play many roles, in order for everything to get done that needs to get done.  No One-Dimensional Men or women in Marfa!