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.