I do not get out of the city all that much. It’s an ever rarer opportunity when I find myself driving 16 hours in the vast expanse high desert of far West Texas.
The town of Marfa is said to have been named after Fyodor Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov; In the 48 hours I spent exploring I found many unusual curiosities in Marfa.
The Chinati Foundation Is known in the art world as the largest public museum for the permanent installation of sculpture in the world. It houses the works of Carl Andre, Ingolfur Arnarsson, Roni Horn, Ilya Kabakov, Richard Long, Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, David Rabinowitch, John Wesley, John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, and it’s founder-Donald Judd. It was Judd’s goal to bring art, architecture, and nature together in order to form a coherent whole.
Prada Marfa
Marfa Mystery Lights
According to the Handbook of Texas Online, "...at times they appear colored as they twinkle in the distance. They move about, split apart, melt together, disappear, and reappear. Presidio County residents have watched the lights for over a hundred years. The first historical record of them recalls that in 1883 a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. He was told by other settlers that they often saw the lights, but when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite.
I am left thinking... if all these minds saw something great I suppose I can included myself in the bunch?