Tuesday, September 12, 2006
DAY SEVEN: Travel from New Mexico to Abilene, TX (via Marfa, TX)
Campsite in New Mexico
I landed in Marfa, TX by 3:00pm, CST, population 2121. An artist named Donald Judd bought an old army base here in 1979 and permnaently installed works by himself and artists he admired.
The sign in the Chinati Museum downtown said they were closed on Tuesdays. In the Marfa Book Co., I found an article on The Chinati Foundation in a Texas art guide and it recommends planning ahead. I did not do this. I thought showing up in a remote town in west Texas was enough planning.
So I checked my email, uploaded yesterday's entry, and drank a ginseng ginger ale. The bookstore is modern and comfortable with a large art section and a gallery. I didn't feel like talking to anyone, and in fact felt incapacitated in that arena. I took myself on a tour of the perimeter of the other buildings owned by the Foundation.
This building sits opposite the entrance.
And these types of trees or cacti grow all around. A man in a passing red truck called out "It takes them a 100 years to grow that way" as I stood looking at one.
(i can't get this to orient correctly)
I've found this taped to the inside of the doors of the gas stations in Texas.
On the way back to Interstate 20, Rt. 17 lead me through some of the most divine landscape I've ever seen.
Marfa seemed to dislodge a host of anxieties. The evening was tough and I distracted myself with Godtalk radio stations and trying to find Gnarls Barkley's new hit "Crazy" on the pop stations. Several friends talked me back from the edge of my cerebral warfare. The ochre moon rose late, half full, resting on its side, and fuzzy. I slept in the Iron Maiden at a busy rest stop east of Abilene.
Campsite in New Mexico
I landed in Marfa, TX by 3:00pm, CST, population 2121. An artist named Donald Judd bought an old army base here in 1979 and permnaently installed works by himself and artists he admired.
The sign in the Chinati Museum downtown said they were closed on Tuesdays. In the Marfa Book Co., I found an article on The Chinati Foundation in a Texas art guide and it recommends planning ahead. I did not do this. I thought showing up in a remote town in west Texas was enough planning.
So I checked my email, uploaded yesterday's entry, and drank a ginseng ginger ale. The bookstore is modern and comfortable with a large art section and a gallery. I didn't feel like talking to anyone, and in fact felt incapacitated in that arena. I took myself on a tour of the perimeter of the other buildings owned by the Foundation. 
This building sits opposite the entrance.
And these types of trees or cacti grow all around. A man in a passing red truck called out "It takes them a 100 years to grow that way" as I stood looking at one.
(i can't get this to orient correctly)I've found this taped to the inside of the doors of the gas stations in Texas.
On the way back to Interstate 20, Rt. 17 lead me through some of the most divine landscape I've ever seen.
Marfa seemed to dislodge a host of anxieties. The evening was tough and I distracted myself with Godtalk radio stations and trying to find Gnarls Barkley's new hit "Crazy" on the pop stations. Several friends talked me back from the edge of my cerebral warfare. The ochre moon rose late, half full, resting on its side, and fuzzy. I slept in the Iron Maiden at a busy rest stop east of Abilene.
