Marfa

We decided to take a break from biking and hiking and explore the surrounding area.I’d read a lot about the tiny town of Marfa so we decided to take a day to check it out. We timed our travels to arrive between 12:00 and 3:00 so we could get lunch at a food truck called Food Shark. The Mediterranean food plate we got lived up to the hype and the falafel’s were the best I’ve ever had. Next,we went to see minimalist artist, Donald Judd’s untitled concrete boxes that are spread out over two acres and are the first installation he created when he moved to this small Texas town in the 1970’s. From what I can tell, minimalist’s try to form objects/art free from emotion. However, Judd’s concrete boxes, randomly spaced on the Chihahuan desert floor made me feel lonesome...almost like an Edward Hopper painting. We arrived too late to see any of his other installations so we headed to the even tinier town of Valentine to see Prada, Marfa. It was created over a decade ago by two artists as a sort of Pop Architecture piece that speaks to art, fashion and capitalism. Probably the best way to describe Marfa; the only radio station you can pick up there is NPR.

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Switching gears, we traveled back to Marfa and enjoyed happy hour at The Hotel Paisano that served as the headquarters for the film crew of the 1956 movie Giant. We were exhausted by the time we made it back to our campsite but loved our day of visiting all these places we’ve read about in fellow traveler’s blogs.