Gallery on the Range
Story and photographs by Rani Birchfield
N
ested in the hills off
the Scenic Loop,
somewhere vaguely
after Point of Rocks and
before the turn off to
Valentine, lies a little-
known respite from harried
small-town life; a place
where one can enjoy the
beauty of human creativity
surrounded by the quiet
elegance of nature.
The Old Spanish Trail
Gallery and Museum is a
new Fine Art Gallery and
Museum in Crow’s Nest. If
you don’t know where
Crow’s Nest is, you’re
probably not alone. It’s
back in the hills just past
the old cowboy camp
meeting grounds if you’re
headed west. Why would
someone build an art
gallery way out there, and
how is it going to “make
it?” I wondered. I made an
appointment with the Gallery, cleared
an afternoon and drove out.
The road shimmered in the
February heat as the stress of the week
dissipated in the empty antelope fields.
“For Sale” signs dotted the fields of
cacti between the occasional houses.
Not far past Bloy’s Camp, the metal
buildings deserted at this time of year,
was a rustic metal sign for “Crow’s
Nest” and the “Old Spanish Trail
Gallery and Museum.” I turned in as
the Border Patrol blimp faded in and
out of sight in the blue sky. Signs at
choice points in the dirt road let me
know I was on the right track. Set back
from the road to the side of the camp-
ground was a long metal building with
the destination sign “Old Spanish
Trail Gallery and Museum” on the
floor of the long porch.
The Gallery is the vision of Roxa
Robison, a lifetime rancher who now
rides 4-wheelers instead of horses. Her
grandparents bought the land in 1905
8
and Robison’s family has ranched it
ever since, preserving a way of life that
has its own operating instructions and
culture. Robison and her late husband,
Tom, had two children, daughter
Elizabeth Martin, who goes by “Besa,”
and son Bill Max whom they raised on
the ranch doing “normal” things like
branding, working the cattle when
they needed it and shipping the calves.
It’s a step back in time to where a
handshake IS the deal, and the land
and livestock are respected. “It’s just a
way of life; you either like it or you
don’t. Both my children like it and are
involved,” Robison said.
Along with inheriting a ranch, the
love of art was also passed down. “My
paternal grandmother was an artist, as
well as my mother. Both of my chil-
dren have artist abilities, though they
don’t use them much,” Robison said.
She uses a variety of mediums in her
creative expressions; china painting,
oils, sculpting, and graphite drawings.
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2017
Robison also does clay work and has
done a bronze.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,”
Robison said. “When I was in fifth
grade, I did a sketch on the end of an
apple box. In those days we could
bring knives to school, and I dug out a
design.” She used to make little adobes
out in the yard and built little houses
out of the soil. Kaolin clay is abundant
on the premises, which is the material
used in ceramics (the main component
of porcelain) as well as cosmetics.
Recently, a professor from Las Cruces,
NM took Marfa students out to the
ranch where they gathered the clay,
took it back to the “lab” and processed
it for objets d'art. “It’s a lifelong inter-
est for me – I like to be around people
that like to do art.”
The vision, although long in the
tooth, started materializing in
February 2016. One of the barns was
in need of major repairs as it was not
long for standing. There was an old
restored buggy in the barn
and another in process.
When it came time to get
them
out,
Robison
thought, “What to do, in
the
interim?”
Glen
Moreland was called to fin-
ish the restoration on the
buggy as well as a chuck-
wagon. A building was
started in June and every-
thing rapidly came togeth-
er.
Wanting to do some-
thing that hadn’t already
been done in the area,
Robison found artists who
weren’t in danger of being
pulled from other venues.
Lindy Severns, Ginger
Lemons, David Loren Bass,
Dina Gregory, neighbor
and fellow rancher Wayne
Baize, a young artist from
Texas Tech, Nicole Miller,
and most recently, one of
Robison’s three grand-
daughters, Delaney Martin, joined the
group. No one wanted to be tied to a
town – Marfa, Ft. Davis, or Alpine –
and they knew that they wouldn’t get
heavy traffic being that far out, but it’s
a plus that people can visit a ranch
without trespassing.
Severns, who has come into her
own as an acclaimed local artist, has
her studio on Robison’s property.
Severns and her husband, Jim, both
retired pilots, used to camp at Crow’s
Nest when they were still flying, choos-
ing the spot for it’s lack of communica-
tion with the frenetic world. In 2004
when they quit the piloting life, the
Severns went to Crow’s Nest to detox
because it was far enough out there,
but still close to Lubbock, their chosen
home-base city. Robison saw Severns
painting on previous trips and
approached Severns about doing a
mural in the ranch kitchen of
Robison’s private space where they
celebrated family holidays. Robison