We’re still in Marfa,
though we made a quick zip over to Ft. Davis, which was a great little
town. We stopped at a rattlesnake museum. And the fort itself, an old military
post from the mid-1800s, was incredible. There was an elderly couple who worked there as volunteers for a few months, hiking and covering the fort museum, while on a cross-country RV journey. (Josh named them Earl and Sherry, because we didn't catch their names but, man, did they totally look like an Earl and Sherry.) Also, there was a really interesting, nice guy named Doug who breeds and
trains camels, and brought three of them to the fort for a kid’s event they’d
had earlier. I’m in love with
camels.
Before the fort, we
took the early half of the Chinati Foundation tour, where we saw a bunch of
installations of Donald Judd’s art, along with other artists’s work permanently
installed in the buildings on the foundation’s property.
Partially because of
these great sights, this post will be mostly photographs…but also partially because
I’m exhausted and I want to take a nap before we eat dinner. Josh's blog will probably cover some more crucial details eventually, plus is just an interesting read generally.
However, I will say that seeing the art
this morning reminded me of a conversation we had over drinks with Tim and
Caitlin last night. (Who really
are awesome, by the way. We had a
great time with them.) Tim’s
interested in concrete poems, which are rather out of vogue these days. But some of his poems are political,
and concrete or more art-based poems can be interesting, I think, in terms of
“poetry as monument.” The artifact
of the poem becomes a testimonial the same way a memorial statue or a plaque
might. And funny
enough, Tim has had plenty of his poems shown at art shows, even when literary journals
might not be as responsive.
whether visual artists are simply more open-minded to mixing genres without
re-labeling the work. Because,
sure, we poets often collaborate with artists, but for some reason I feel like
we don’t generally call these collaborations “poems,” where an artist might more
easily call them “artworks.”
So, pictures. But first, your question for today:
What’s your favorite piece of writing about
art? Or animals? Or forts, for that matter?
And more below….