I wanted to give you guys a little recap of my trip to Marfa, Texas. If you haven’t heard of it, Marfa is a little oasis in the desert, filled with art and the likes of celebrities like Solange & Beyoncé Knowles who own a ranch there. Other celebrities like Natalie Portman, Robert Pattinson, and Jake Gyllenhaal have been cool enough to make the pilgrimage.
YES, I said pilgrimage. The reason being, it takes about 9 hours to get there from Dallas, TX (where we were driving from). It takes 7 hours to get there from San Antonio. The closest city is El Paso but it even takes about 3 hours to drive from there. It’s legitimately in the middle of nowhere! They say you can get from New York to Paris and seated for dinner faster than you can get from New York to Marfa. Getting there is commitment!
Downtown Marfa was full of art installations from the Donald Judd Chinati Foundation, enormous Andy Warhol pieces, boutiques carrying 10-pound gemstones AND $5 thousand dresses, and giant cacti and aloe plants scattered throughout.
The town is best known, however, for the Prada Marfa art installation about 45 minutes outside of city limits. Remember back to Gossip Girl? Serena Vanderwoodsen’s mom, Lily, had a large art piece in their penthouse that was a sign pointing to Prada Marfa.
The whole town was essentially an Instagram playground! We were there to shoot a campaign for my friend’s CBD skincare line, officially launching in March of 2019 (it’s called Taylor+Tess – TURST me, you’ll be getting all the details!). We did 5 shoots total in on-brand outfits with a bunch of friends – all with varying skin tones, which was my favorite part.
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll already know that we got TATTOOS while we were there! This is my second one, and my first one I got 10 YEARS AGO right before I went away to college. This one also signified a big change in my life and an evolution of sorts. I got “let it be” in honor of the Beatles song written tiny on the side of my ribs. I had been wanting to get it for over a year but plans to get it kept falling through. The meaning behind it was meant to remind me to let go & let God come into the picture when confronted with tough situations. To essentially let things unfold the way they’re meant to be; find beauty in the imperfect nature of life as I have learned to do in this past season of life. The PERFECT part of this experience was that the tattoos were “hand poked” where they make each mark by hand instead of tracing them perfectly. This causes the tattoo to have an organic, “natural,” artistic feel to it as it is slightly imperfect. IT WAS LITERALLY the essence of WHY I wanted it in the first place! Such a beautiful story & experience.
On the last day, we wrapped up the trip with a private tour of the Chinati Foundation, founded by Donald Judd’s daughter Rainer Judd and run by her and her brother Flavin Judd. It was built on an old Army base and has a very surreal feel out in the minimal desert skyline. There is a feeling of emptiness, stillness, and simplicity.
Marfa has changed a lot over the years. As artists, art non-profits, celebrities, and tourists flocked to the Hip stores, restaurants, galleries, music event, wealthy newcomers, and hotels moved in as well. Fashion and travel featured Marfa and their economy has been driven by the creative community. That said, the town certainly still has a “small town” feel to it where the restaurant/ grocery stores/ coffee shops regularly “run out” of things and just close down when they need a break for lunch. The sense of time is pretty loose.
One of my favorite things about Marfa is that they blatantly charge “outsiders” more – having two prices listed on menus (one for locals, the other for tourists). And trust me, they don’t have to ask which one you are!
Would you visit Marfa, TX?
xx,
Antigone