The word epic may have lost its punch due to its over usage, but my trip to Marfa over the weekend was nothing short of that. After flying 7 hours into El Paso, it would take another 3 plus hours to drive through the desert to get to Marfa. Even with the telephone wires visible, Route 90 resembles something out of No Country for Old Men. Nothing upon nothing until thirty miles outside of Marfa, in Valentine, sits the world famous Prada Marfa, an art installation from artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset.
The ghost of Donald Judd brought us to this town and everything that has flourished since his absence. From the shops and restaurants to the galleries and natural surroundings, Marfa is caught between the old and new, small and big, a town and a metropolitan city. We were fortunate enough to tour several of Judd’s private studios and home. To put it bluntly, the grounds in which he lived and worked is a designer’s wet dream. Everything in the space was methodically calculated, down to the placement of a pencil, all of which are supposedly untouched since Judd’s death. As much as we would love to show you pictures, no photographs were allowed during the tour.
Should you ever set time aside to visit Marfa, sleep at the Thunderbird, eat at Cochineal, shop at Marfa Book Co, request a tour with Karen Longshore at the Judd Foundation, and get lost in the desert, it’s an enchanting destination that is like no other.
