Marfa Stuff

I came to Marfa with very little. My car was loaded down, but a lot of space was taken up by Padre's merchandise and my cats. Leaving possessions behind has always had a strange appeal for me. The attraction is not just about lightening my load, but about taking my most special things with me, and I carefully chose the stuff that makes my new home here. Back in Austin, it became increasingly easy to avoid stores and garage sales as my little house became full. Here in my tiny space in Marfa, there is only room for necessities. It's a good thing, because there aren't really any stores anyway. I am at heart a collector, though, and even the lack of space won't keep me from acquiring a few special things that call to me. 

I got this poster print of a still life with sunflowers at the local thrift store. There was a companion piece with brighter colors and different flowers, but I loved everything about the sunflower picture and didn't think twice about breaking up the set. I found a place for it on my casita wall just above the turntable. About a week later, I had a real-life bouquet of sunflowers to match it when Padre's was given several bunches of them to decorate our bar after an art opening. 

The Alice in Wonderland coffee cup surfaced among the few odd mugs at Padre's one day, and I immediately claimed it as my own. We have a collection of bright Lotteria cups which is rounded out with others like this one, leftovers from past events. I had heard of the legendary Wonderland birthday party thrown by a wealthy ranch owner from a couple of different sources, so don't doubt it's veracity, but can't with any authority recount the illegal events that took place over the course of the weekend. I am happy that this particular cup can now exist as a reminder of a more wholesome time, and think of the amazing Lewis Carrol stories I read to my boy when he was little while enjoying my morning coffee. I feel something of a spiritual connection with Alice as I, too, have found myself in a very different place filled with curious characters!

I came across the vintage-inspired Corona beer tray at Murphy's Raspa shop in Alpine, where I was told I could find rolls of oil cloth fabric for Padre's banquet tables. Unfortunately, the merchandise section of the business was closing, and there was little left to shop through. But I found some fabric as well as a few little Dia De Los Muertos figurines that perfectly decorate the empty shelves in the ladies room at the bar. I didn't notice the tray at first as it was filled with dry rice and beans and holding a sad little pair of maracas. I have a thing for trays, and wanted it badly enough to have the helpful employee send a text to the store owner for a price. I filled it with treats for the kids when they visited, and now it is filled with goodies for me. 

Having a simplified wardrobe has also been a fantasy of mine, and I have only added a few, carefully chosen items to the clothes I brought with me to Marfa. I spoke of my perfect white dress with lacy accents in an earlier blog, and just this past week I found a great pair of broken-in brown cowboy boots to go with it. Ellie's little vintage shop, Mid Century Marfa, is like a speak-easy for clothing. Once you've been shown the way by a friend, you may shop unattended at any time of the day or night; simply leave the cash for your purchases in the secret compartment and be on your way. When I made an unfortunate scratch on my boots while wearing them to work for the first time, Ellie said, that's ok, that's what they're for. Years of ruining favorite items of clothing through day-to-day living has also made me philosophical. Like the scars on my skin, I like to think of these stains and scratches as reminders of past times, and will always remember the day I cleaned out the broken bottle cooler in the back bar at Padre's. 

I'm lucky to be working at a live music venue where I have really liked every band that has come to play. I end up spending a portion of my own tip money on their cds, records, and t-shirts, and have a nice collection going. I have cute t-shirts from Not in The Face! and Horse Opera (attention bands: keep making girl-sized shirts!) and music to-go from Carter Beckworth, Outernational, Agent Ribbons, and Dana Falconberry. The later two included containers that are works of art in themselves. Leave it to female musicians to think of details like handmade cd cases to appeal to us girly-girls. 

                              cds by Agent Ribbons & Dana Falconberry and piece of Building 98 mural

And I almost failed to mention my most prized acquisition in these two months, as it is something that I was given and does not have a monetary value. It's an actual piece of the wall from Building 98, the space that two German artists who happened to be prisoners of war painted during their imprisonment in Marfa during World War II. The murals which covered the walls in two large rooms of the officers' club depict the Texas landscape of the area through the eyes of these German men who loved the west, and as stories tell it, had a friendly relationship with the people of Marfa. They have been painstakingly restored over the past year by Yano, an enthusiastic young man that I had the pleasure of knowing in my first few weeks here. He livened up open mics and parties with his acoustic-white-boy versions of hip hop songs which he would ad lib in true rapper style. In restoring the paintings, Yano had to repaint certain sections that had crumbled away due to water damage. At his farewell party, an unveiling of the restoration, I commented that it would be cool to have one of those pieces and without hesitation he bent down and picked up a chunk that hadn't yet been swept away. Souvenirs like this are by far my favorite. Not cheap recreations of the original, but a tiny piece of the real deal.