Thunderbird New Year's Events

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Complete (?) List of Judd's Public Exhibitions To Date
“Marfa Moment”, Exhibition Opportunity for TX Artists
Dallas' Whistler Gallery: "20/20" Exhibition Marks Anniversary

New Year's Eve Party on El Paso between Highland and Dean
- (flyer coming soon)

At the time of the year for generosity, here's how to support:
Chinati Foundation, Marfa Public Radio, Marfa Studio of Arts

To Marfa, on a Tuesday in December

Writer Dan Keane does it again!: "I am typing now in the young writer's stereotypical cold New York apartment and struggling mightily to keep this feature story from melting into a love letter." Keane's newest article appears in the Austin Chronicle. As usual, he paints a vivid picture of town and the current goings-on balanced with the consequences of such, and the local view. This time Keane expands the discussion with the addition of historical information bj (before Judd), tracking the tenuous security of an isolated town.

"Meanwhile, the town of Marfa was slowly drying up. Its population had peaked during World War II, when an airbase east of town had filled the restaurants, bars, and hotels with flyboys. After the war came a bitter drought that crippled the local ranching industry during the 1950s. There was a memorable summer in 1955, when Liz Taylor and James Dean came to town to film Giant, but as each year came and went, more families left than arrived, and the kids grew up and moved away. The Seventies oil boom drew families up to Midland and Odessa for work. The town's two doctors retired and passed away, the two pharmacists closed up shop. The only dentist committed suicide. For their medical visits local residents crossed the pass to Alpine or drove to El Paso and Midland, and their shopping dollars followed. The Safeway closed, the dry cleaners closed, the drive-in closed.

Glenn Garcia is a Marfa native who hired on at Marfa National Bank as a new college graduate in the late 1970s. At the time, he says, he felt like he got the last job in town. He is now the bank's senior vice-president. "People were not moving in to Marfa. And the young folks, they really had to move out. There wasn't any industry here to sustain them or keep them home," he remembers. "Marfa was really slipping. We were going downhill fast...""

Full article, click here.

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Far Out Far West Texas
Texas Observer Mythic Texas gives way to Montana chic by Joe Nick Patoski

A bad way to show good art
Houston Chronicle The Flavin is a vertical light sculpture of blue, pink and yellow fluorescent bulbs. It's intended to lean at a precise angle against a corner and effectively "paint" the air and walls around it with its rainbow glow. Instead of placing it in an actual corner, the organizers chose to build a faux corner in the middle of the room. Its power supply is from a long — unnecessarily long — orange extension cord plugged into a ceiling outlet, allowed to free-fall messily and snake across the floor...

An Experimental Analysis of the Marfa Lights
Brand new study by the physics department of the University of Texas at Dallas finds that the lights are simply headlights in the distance. Haven't we been here before? But this time, the students have a "chase car" with radio communication to the students at the observation point. Read the study in PDF format here.

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Art in Context in Marfa
Design Within Reach To try summing up Judd's work in a few words would be as superficial as summing up Texas by saying "it's big." And generalizing about the experience of the annual "Judd-fest" is equally daunting. This three-day series of lectures, gallery shows, architectural tours and social events is made especially affecting and memorable by the environment and context Judd helped create. At the core of the experience is the belief that context truly matters for art and design. Marfa is a provocative alternative to seeing works of art in the typical urban environment and gallery space. It changes your perspective and makes you think differently. (This is much easier to do in Marfa than in downtown Manhattan.)...

Presidio County Xmas Open House Join the County for Christmas cheer. Friday, December 16, 1:30 to 3:30 Presidio County Courthouse in Marfa. (thanks Marge)

Marfa Community Health Clinic Open House
Come have refreshments, meet the staff, and tour the clinic December 17, 2-5 p.m. 210 S. Summer Street by the Pueblo Grocery Store. (thanks Marge)

MAC may See Facelift as Part of Pool Grant
Big Bend Sentinel Soon... portions of the MAC may get a dramatic facelift as a part of the ongoing pool improvement project. “About half of the money from the Office of Rural Community Affairs grant is dedicated to bringing the pool facility to meet the requirements of the health department,” Mayor David Lanman said Tuesday. “The remainder will be used to improve the environment, with more natural light, aesthetic changes to the front of the building, improvement to the entrance and exits, paint and color.” The $231,000 project languished for months, beleaguered by contractor bids that came in over budget and dissatisfaction from the city with the firm originally hired to engineer the work. That engineering firm is gone now, and in its place, the city has put together a team that includes Alpine architect Tom Greenwood, engineers from a firm named Naismith, and a construction company called All Star... If all goes as expected, said the mayor, work on the pool and the MAC will begin in January, giving the city about five months to complete the project before the grant’s stipulated deadline of May 2006.

Marfa Sector to Receive 25 More Border Agents
Fight for underdog puts lawyer at DeLay's side
Why Small Is BIG (ArtNews)

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Willie Nelson Tickets On Sale, Support KRTS

Less is Murray Star Ledger
"Minimalism. The dominant artistic style in New York City. And it is still going strong -- as witnessed by all the finalists for the World Trade Center Memorial... At its roots, Minimalism is a graphic style, begun by painters and corporate designers in the 1960s who were pursuing critic Clement Greenberg's injunction to make art "flatten out." Its first generation is now entering their 60s, and the lone woman in that generation, Elizabeth Murray..."

Want to Run for Office? Here's How Big Bend Sentinel
willie / not willie / willie / not willie / WILLIE!
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