Voices of the
BIG BEND
Jim Glendinning The Galloping Scot, Author, World Traveler and sometime tour operator.
Story and photographs by Jim Glendinning
MArY BAXTer
Mary Baxter was born in Lubbock,
Texas in 1963, the third child of
Morris Byrd Baxter and Katherine
Courson Baxter. Her elder siblings are
Kenneth, who now lives in Spokane,
WA and Anne, today residing in Rio
Vista, TX. Later the family moved to
San Antonio when her father, a U.S.
Air Force navigator, was transferred
there.
As a teenager Mary didn’t like
Oliver Wendell Holmes High School
in San Antonio. She particularly dis-
liked being indoors. She much pre-
ferred horses, a feeling she shared with
her sister. Her first horse, acquired
when she was in second grade, was a
22-year-old Welsh pony that cost $85.
Later, the girls showed horses.
After high school graduation in
1981, she enrolled at the University of
Texas at San Antonio. She majored in
marketing and also took fine arts
courses, including print making, grad-
uating in 1988. To finance her studies,
she worked at the Retama Polo Club
in San Antonio as well as other polo
clubs around the country. Her duties
included grooming and exercising polo
ponies and she got to recognize polo
potential in these animals.
In 1994, she moved to West Texas
and took a lease on the old
Montgomery Ranch south of Marfa,
near Casa Piedra. She and a partner
raised cattle and, for extra income, she
trained horses for polo and delivered
them to polo clubs in Palm Beach, FL.
During this period, Mary started
painting. She loved the quiet and sim-
plicity of the landscape, as well as the
animals and plants that lived there.
She painted in oil on small canvasses
or even pieces of plank. After a chance
encounter with Keri Artzt (now Keri
14
Cenizo
MArY BAXTer
Marfa
Blackman), she was asked to show her
work at Artzt’s Alpine gallery. She was
shocked when it sold.
In 1994 she moved to Marathon,
Texas and, helped by James Evans,
opened a studio and gallery. She con-
tinued to paint landscapes as well as
studies of cattle, horses and cactus. Her
reputation grew and she had exhibi-
tions in Midland and (shared) in San
Angelo and Houston (“Texas
Contemporary Regionalists” in 2013).
“I met some high quality artists,” she
says, grinning.
In 2004 Mary met Neil Chavigny,
an entrepreneur from Houston. The
couple were married in Marathon two
years later by Daniel Eaton, the fire
chief. Later they moved to Marfa
where Mary uses a vintage Silverstreak
RV as her remote studio.
First Quarter 2015
CAleB JAgger
Fort Davis
Today her landscape paintings have
become looser, she says, and she has
branched into sculpture in bronze,
telephone wire and concrete. Her cur-
rent portfolio includes landscapes and
Marfa scenes, and sculptures of rabbits
and javelina. Her work is displayed at
galleries in San Antonio, Houston and
Round Top.
Mary’s success comes from her
close contact with the land and from
her developing expertise. Lonn Taylor,
columnist and author from Fort Davis,
describes making his first purchase of a
Baxter landscape. “We couldn’t live
without it,” he concluded after deliber-
ation. “Her appeal is representational
but impressionistic, it is painterly
work.” Mary can be reached at
baxtergallery.com.
sArA BOw
Alpine
CAleB JAgger
Born in Austin in 1983, Caleb
Jagger’s life properly began after the
family, including his elder sister,
Challis, moved to Fort Davis in 1991.
By then his mother, Ruth Ann
Cisneros Jagger, and his father, Todd
Jagger, musician, photographer and
businessman, were divorced.
At school in Fort Davis, he has fond
memories of his first teacher at the ele-
mentary school, Ms. Dirks. He
enjoyed class, and in high school math
was his best subject. From his father he
got early instruction in photography
that would later become a consuming
interest for him.
At age 17, Jagger worked and saved
money for a three-month trip to
Europe. Using a Eurailpass and sleep-
ing in student hostels or on trains, he