West Texas Triology Part 3: Chinati Foundation and Donald Judd

One of the reasons I went to Marfa was to go to the Chinati Foundation to see the works of Donald Judd and others.

In the interest of time and space Google Donald Judd. He was a NYC art critic and artist who adopted Marfa as his home in the early '70s. He had an incredible vision to acquire land and large spaces for installations of large scale minimalist art pieces. He got major bucks from a well endowed art foundation and bought an entire abandoned Army base. The Chinati Foundation has his work as well as other artists. The Judd Foundation also in Marfa is dedicated to his life and work. While this type of art isn't my favorite, I admire the vision he had and the very large way in which he implemented his vision. Visitors from all over the world who are into this type of art visit Marfa to see his unusual work and the way it is displayed. The pic on the left is his signature work of 100 large aluminum boxes, each of which has some variation of its design. They were machined at a special factory in CT. They are housed in two buildings ( one of which is shown above) that were old ammunitions storage building on the base. Many many buildings have been redone to hold massive installations of like minded artists. Judd also has a signature installation outside of concrete blocks. I can't really do this justice with a few pix and words. One of his pals was Claes Oldenburg. The big horseshoe shown above is an Oldenburg installation. I know Odenburg work: the clothespin near City Hall in Philadelphia and the large rubber "FREE" stamp in Cleveland. You too may have seen Oldenburg work, known as witty, outdoor, very large statues of common items in many major cities. Google him too if you have time. His work is awesome.

What does any of this have to do with Leukemia and Lymphoma Society? At first, nothing at all. I went to Marfa for a weekend outing. After I returned home Sunday night, I looked on the internet to find out more about Judd. I found out that he died of Lymphoma in 1994 at the age of 65. So, a creative life was snuffed out by a blood cancer at a young age. Very sad.

More on Adams Angels Ministry...it was formed in memory of Adam Culliver who died at age 4 of AML. In addition to family support for impacted families, this ministry advocates at the State and Federal level for funding for childhood cancers. Adams Angels participated in the work to pass the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act of 2008. This act authorizes funding to expand fderal support for cooperatve biomedical clinical trials and research to advance treatments of childhood cancers. Adam's parents are board members of Adams Angels Ministry. Adam is my honored angel this weekend.

Something to be thankful for: a visit to the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mts and seeing the International Space Station in orbit.

West Texas Triology Part 2: Gateway to Big Bend and a little Hollywood

I couldn't resist visiting Alpine and Marathon while in Marfa. The three towns are like beads on a necklace called US 90. Alpine was vaguely familiar to me. Once there, I realized that it is the home of Sul Ross State University. SRSU is a rival of Stephen F. Austin so I grew up hearing that name without really having any idea about Alpine. Alpine has double the population of Marfa at 5700 people. It has cute downtown street with a few shops and galleries. I stopped at a cafe that had been a gas station in its prior life. I saw a number of those--it is pretty popular cafe style in the Big Bend Gateway area of Texas. From there I went on to Marathon. I am only slightly less smitten about Marathon than Marfa. The downtown is a couple of blocks of galleries and shops. Most of the buildings are a unifying adobe. Marathon just drips with charm. I stopped at another former gas station for a coffee. The Gage Hotel in downtown is a historic building with a number of outbuildings and an oasis of a pool. It was built by an oil baron ( what else) in the twenties. If Joe and I come back to Big Bend, I would like to spend a couple of nights there. I spotted a Day Spa around the corner. Marathon, however charming, has a population of 600---so I suspect it gets a little slow there after a day or two. Oh I should mention that Amtrak stops there three times a week. I suspect those days bring excitement.

I got back to Marfa in time for a stop at the Squeeze, which is a juice/smoothie bar across from the beautiful courthouse. As it was near closing time, the girls inside stepped up the gossip flow. The proprietor told her staff that her friend "Fred" has been approached by Inside Edition to get pix of Randy Quaid. In case you've been busy, Randy and his wife were arrested in Marfa on Thursday for skipping out on a $10k hotel bill in Los Angeles. They spent a few hours in the slammer before posting bail. Well, "Fred" told Inside Edition to stick it. He did not want to be anybody's papparazzi. Then a waitress told the story that her daughter, who works at the Hotel Paisano, had been somewhat harrassed by Inside Edition to get info about Randy's where-abouts. She stuck to her guns that she would not give out info about hotel guests. Texans really stick together and nobody in Marfa was ratting out Randy this past weekend to any Hollywood news show.

My honored hero this weekend is Adam Culliver who died at age 4, only four days after diagnosis. Adam died of AML, one of the worst forms of leukemia and the type from which my father died Adam's parents and his church community formed Adams Angels Ministry to help families where there is childhood cancer. It's mission can be described:

A Awareness in the community

N Needs of families fulfilled

G Giving from the heart

E Encouraging involvement

L Loving children

S Serving childhood cancer families

The biggest challenge I have in writing this blog is balancing the emotion of writing about those who have died with the hope for the survivors. This cause is about hope. It is about finding even better treatments so that more people live good quality of life after diagnosis. While doing that, however, we want to honor the memories of those who succumbed.

Something to be thankful for: sunrise over a West Texas prairie.