Marfa - the village

It came to me as a surprise that Marfa got its name after one of the characters from a book the Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevski. This was apparently an idea of railroad executive`s wife who was reading the book at the time. Marfa then became an important water and freight stop along the newly built railway on the way down south to Galveston. At the beginning of 20th century, Marfa played an important role during the Mexican Revolution when the US government sent cavalry troops to Marfa to protect its territory. The military presence continued during the Second World War in Marfa, when the Government set up the Chemical Warfare Brigades, prisoners of war camp and Army Air Filed in the close proximity of Marfa, which rocketed the local population to 30,000 at its peak. We heard a lot about this history from a very kind guide at the Marfa Visitors Center, whose whole family was connected with the military, including his granddaughter showed on the second line from the top and the fourth picture from the left. He also told us about the women pilot group that was trained in Marfa during the WWII, called W.A.S.P..

Later on, we returned to the current Marfa visitors center but for a completely different  occasion. We were invited to "after the end of the world party" on the 22nd December for all survives living in Marfa! This was a private party organised by Dave, a Marfa lover living in Boston, and we had a great time. We met a lot of locals including the mayor of Marfa (the first from the right on the picture below) and my mum fulfilled her childhood dream and had a picture taken with a native american indian or rather half Apache and half Aztec (second below).

Despite the fact that the pictures form the party looks quite mellow, the party got going later on and we danced and danced... And we were not alone in this. A professional dance group from Austin kept us a company. Have a look at the video. There are some interesting moves out there. 

But Marfa is no longer about military as it was in the first half of 20th century. Marfa is now a town of artists. Despite being so small, every corner is  unique. Marfa has many small galleries, funky shops, amazing bookshop, restaurants, Paisano Hotel and El Cosmico accomodation.... it has a healthy population of young people and  you don`t miss a style when you walk around. And by this I don`t mean cowboy hats and boots as you would expect in this part of the world. So I hope it will stay this way and it will be an inspiration for its people and visiting tourists. I could show you more pictures showing Marfa`s character, but I would leave it up to you to fill the gaps. May be with the help of internet, or perhaps by buying a ticket : )

The Chinati Foundation

We stayed 3 nights in Marfa, which gave us quite a lot of time to explore all what the village has on offer.  Apart from Marfa lights, people come to see the contemporary minimalist artwork collection kept on the grounds of Chinati Foundation. This foundation was formed by Donald Judd, a world-renowned artist, who sought clarity and interaction with the environment in his artwork. Donald once said that "art is made as one lives. It must be as decisive as acts in life..." (1983) and by looking at his pieces one can see that obeying the rules of geometry and the tasteful location of his objects into the environment was the key to his success. Donald liked to play with light - or rather - let the sun light work the way through his artwork and give it new distinctive identity as day goes by.

Here are some of the pieces that we have seen. The first picture (not mine) is from "100 in mill aluminum" exhibition that shows 52 pieces in the north shed and 48 pieces in the south shed. Each piece is of the same size but it has a different structure inside. It`s a basic concept, but it works really well if you have the space to put it in.

This is a picture of the north shed with aluminum pieces inside. 

However, we had the most fun with Danald`s  pieces on a meadow just below the sheds. These were massive concrete cubes that allowed us to go in and out and be part of this massive geometry project, and .... pretend to be models.

As a part of a whole day tour we also saw an exhaustive amount of Dan Flavin`s artwork, who based its art on light instillation and experimentation. He managed to fill 6 former army barracks with relatively few, but powerful pieces. The trouble was that they seemed all the same at the end... Apart from the light artwork, there was just a bare room in each of the barracks.  

Marfa lights

Perhaps one of the biggest attraction that brings many visitors to Marfa is a chase of mystery lights. These appear during the night in a close proximity of the village, typically off road East 90. Mystery lights, have been regularly seen by locals since 1840s, but their origin remains fully unexplained. Some believe they are old spirits of Indians. Others that they are swamp gas, except that there are no swamps in the dessert... The more pragmatic crowd, including some important town officials of Marfa believe that lights are a result of drastic change in temperatures. I can certainly see their point because at the time when we visited, there was -5C during the night and then easily 20C during the day. But what causes the lights for sure - I don`t know. We tried to see them twice from a designated location (a pretty look-out with a lavatories) but neither of the time we came any close. Disappointing as it was, I still believe there are out there. We heard so many stories from locals about their encounters with the lights that this just can`t be a tourist trap, or can it?

The picture below is taken by someone who saw Marfa lights. They glow and move around and if you try to come close, they move away from you...

The beginning of our journey

I have been playing with the idea of setting up a blog for a while. However it wasn`t until today, the first day after "the end of the world on 22nd of December 2012", in Marfa that I realized that it is really the right time to start. My current inspiration are travels with my mum around the Western part of Texas, which is culturally diverse but population limited place. The vastness of this region however awakens my senses and brings up a new stories in pictures and words to tell. So if you haven`t  been here before and fancy a little adventure to the foreign lands, read further. Especially if you are now sitting by a frosty window and a Christmas tree close-by.

Let`s start with a map of how we got here:

I won`t bore you with the details of our journey. I only say that it took about 8 hours to get here. Roads are wide and long as you would expect in America, and landscape changes from fields with cattle and live oak tress to increasingly arid desert-like countryside with mysterious random rock formation closer to Marfa.

I got us booked in to Ritta Inn which is a cheap motel just outside of Marfa. Below is a view from our bedroom door. Accommodation was clean but nothing spectacular - just two queen beds, a table and cold bathroom; however the "waw" effect came right the following morning when we woke up and saw the dark blue sky. Natural dramatic light is something what brings travelers to Marfa and change normal views to memorable scenery. You might not get my point directly from the picture below, but hopefully with more to come, you will get what I mean. There are also more type of lights that I will tell you about in connection with this 2000+ inhabitants large village. Because Marfa and lights and like a brother and a sister.