continued from page 4
ative brain disorders among
slaughterhouse
workers
exposed to cow’s brains. (Is
that because I didn’t put my
hand in the hole cut in the top
of the freezer?) Art is subjec-
tive and can be strange, but I
found myself thinking about
things outside my bubble. And
that’s the point: I found myself
thinking.
My next stop was a small
gallery called Etherington Art.
Mary Etherington, the owner
and director, is a transplant
from Martha’s Vineyard,
Massachusetts. Etherington
had a gallery on the Vineyard,
and after visiting Marfa,
decided to relocate. From
expansive West Texas photog-
raphy by Bob Anderson to
life-sized photographs of
Tibetan murals created from
1080 to the 17th century,
Etherington told stories of the
art and of Marfa as we sat at
her picnic table in the gallery.
The current popularity of
the town takes away from
younger artists who come to
Marfa to hang out and work
for
their
big
break,
Etherington said. Yet despite
the swing from inaccessible to
trendy, Marfa is still an intel-
lectually oriented place for
artists. “It’s very civilized,”
said Etherington. “That’s
what I like about Marfa. It’s a
rich cultural scene in the mid-
dle of nowhere.”
An article in Vanity Fair
magazine in 2012 entitled
“Lone
Star
Bohemia”
changed the coolness of
Marfa, Etherington said. In
past days, curators, collectors,
and architects came to see the
work of Judd. Now that Marfa
is consistently on top 10 lists of
best, remote, and cool towns
to visit, it’s shifted from a pil-
grimage site to something else.
Whatever the “something
else” is, the broad music scene
and good festivals make Marfa
more accessible to locals and
people who aren’t interested
in formal art per se. It also
makes the dollars of the locals
more accessible to businesses,
keeping the wheels of local
economy turning.
The current boom and
shuffle will affect Etherington
sooner than later; the building
where she rents a space (near
the new St. George hotel) is for
sale. She may have to relocate,
but Etherington says she will
stay in Marfa.
Part of the coolness about
an art field trip to Marfa is vis-
iting the galleries grown out of
abandoned spaces and historic
homes. Such was my next
stop. Brothers Fine Art is a
gallery owned and run by
Christa Brothers. Located on
the west side of Marfa, the
cobbled-together
building
functions as the Bavarian-
born Brothers’s studio, gallery
and home. In a state of
entropy and full of abandoned
things left behind by past
dwellers, Brothers and her
husband saw beyond the
residue and purchased the
property. “It was in bad shape
when we bought it, but the
seemingly never-ending task
of ‘digging out’ is like my play-
ground,” Brothers said.
Brothers features artists
from all over the world. Native
Texan Billy L. Keen, whom
the editors of Art Connoisseur
Magazine named artist of the
year for 2016, is well repre-
sented in the rambling gallery.
Keen is a multimedia artist
who evolves the “tired land-
scape” into something more,
something interactive and
thought provoking. The strip
at the bottom of his works is
symbolic of always being on
The Path, Brothers said.
Art from Berlin artist Inge
H. Schmidt also resides at
Brothers
gallery.
Traditionally- sized portrayals
adorn the walls in Marfa, but
Schmidt also does larger-than-
life pieces. Her ongoing proj-
ect, “Colors of Life,” repre-
sents openness and tolerance
toward ethnic and religious
diversity. The formal exhibit
for “Colors of Life” will open
at the United Nations in New
York on April 21 in conjunc-
tion with the gallery in Marfa.
The six-bedroom, two-bath
building where Brothers lives,
works, and shows will eventu-
ally be a place where artists
can come and stay. Typically
the artist is supposed to per-
form and produce in these
types of settings, but Brothers
wants to provide an informal
retreat where artists can come
and just breathe. “Do some-
thing or just gain a new per-
spective…easy does it,” she
said as we sipped coffee in her
kitchen. I felt like I was in the
home of my fun relative and
happened to be surrounded by
extraordinary creativity.
Connections are found in
quiet galleries that are relative-
ly empty even when there are
crowds, at least in West Texas.
If you only have one experi-
ence of the arts, you project
that and your expectations
come into play, narrowing
your potential to see a larger
expanse of the concept. The
expansiveness of the large
spaces in the foundations gives
us more room to be in our
minds. The galleries give us
glimpses into human experi-
ences different from our own,
from the artists as well as the
owners of the galleries. Much
like traveling expands one’s
horizons, art can do the same
– it’s like seeing through the
eyes of another, moving into
their psyche (or psychosis) for
a few moments, and can be a
very intimate, sometimes dis-
turbing, more often spiritual,
encounter.
If you want something out
of the typical West Texas
norm, go to Marfa. Visit foun-
dations, visit galleries. You
may not like all of it, but you
may create new space in your
solid matter brain. Sit with the
art, visit with the curators in
the space held by the pieces,
have a glass of wine or a cup of
coffee - or just have a thought.
You may not get it…. But
then again, you might.
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