Marfa

Marfa
Author: Kathleen Shafer
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2019-03-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1477318313

This inviting book explores how small-town Marfa, Texas, has become a landmark arts destination and tourist attraction, despite--and because of--its remote location in the immense Chihuahuan desert.

West Texas

West Texas
Author: Paul H. Carlson
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0806145234

Texas is as well known for its diversity of landscape and culture as it is for its enormity. But West Texas, despite being popularized in film and song, has largely been ignored by historians as a distinct and cultural geographic space. In West Texas: A History of the Giant Side of the State, Paul H. Carlson and Bruce A. Glasrud rectify that oversight. This volume assembles a diverse set of essays covering the grand sweep of West Texas history from the ancient to the contemporary. In four parts—comprehending the place, people, politics and economic life, and society and culture—Carlson and Glasrud and their contributors survey the confluence of life and landscape shaping the West Texas of today. Early chapters define the region. The “giant side of Texas” is a nineteenth-century geographical description of a vast area that includes the Panhandle, Llano Estacado, Permian Basin, and Big Bend–Trans-Pecos country. It is an arid, windblown environment that connects intimately with the history of Texas culture. Carlson and Glasrud take a nonlinear approach to exploring the many cultural influences on West Texas, including the Tejanos, the oil and gas economy, and the major cities. Readers can sample topics in whichever order they please, whether they are interested in learning about ranching, recreation, or turn-of-the-century education. Throughout, familiar western themes arise: the urban growth of El Paso is contrasted with the mid-century decline of small towns and the social shifting that followed. Well-known Texas scholars explore popular perceptions of West Texas as sparsely populated and rife with social contradiction and rugged individualism. West Texas comes into yet clearer view through essays on West Texas women, poets, Native peoples, and musicians. Gathered here is a long overdue consideration of the landscape, culture, and everyday lives of one of America’s most iconic and understudied regions.

Marfa for the Perplexed

Marfa for the Perplexed
Author: Lonn Taylor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2018-03-30
Genre: Curiosities and wonders
ISBN: 9780692076118

Essays

Borderlands

Borderlands
Author: Gloria Anzaldúa
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781879960954

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry. Latinx Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. Edited by Ricardo F. Vivancos-Pèrez and Norma Cantú. Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa's experiences growing up near the U.S./Mexico border, BORDERLANDS/LA FRONTERA remaps our understanding of borders as psychic, social, and cultural terrains that we inhabit and that inhabit us all. Drawing heavily on archival research and a comprehensive literature review while contextualizing the book within her theories and writings before and after its 1987 publication, this critical edition elucidates Anzaldúa's complex composition process and its centrality in the development of her philosophy. It opens with two introductory studies; offers a corrected text, explanatory footnotes, translations, and four archival appendices; and closes with an updated bibliography of Anzaldúa's works, an extensive scholarly bibliography on Borderlands, a brief biography, and a short discussion of the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Papers. "Ricardo F. Vivancos-Pèrez's meticulous archival work and Norma Elia Cantú's life experience and expertise converge to offer a stunning resource for Anzaldúa scholars; for writers, artists, and activists inspired by her work; and for everyone. Hereafter, no study of Borderlands will be complete without this beautiful, essential reference."--Paola Bacchetta

Reata

Reata
Author: Mike Micallef
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2011-07-27
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1607741768

Bold. Majestic. Storied. Texas. The Lone Star State has many traditions, among them its homegrown cuisine, which Texans have always been justly proud of, and which has been gaining followers--and respect--all over the country. The Reata restaurants have an honored place in this emerging culinary story. Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine tells the tale of one American family that, against the breathtaking backdrop of Texas, took risks, worked hard, and dreamed big. Today the pride of the Micallef family are its two Reata restaurants, the original location in the tiny West Texas town of Alpine, and its much larger sibling in Fort Worth. Reata pays homage to America’s cowboys and the values they have come to symbolize by promoting the traditional ideals of integrity, generosity, and hospitality with an easy ambience, exciting dishes, and exceptional service. The Reata menus combine familiar Texas fare with fresh culinary trends, including signature favorites, like the pepper-crusted tenderloin, the golden chicken-fried steaks, and the tenderloin tamales. Adventurous cooks will want to try the buffalo rib eye and the smoked quail, as well as some of the more surprising pairings, such as the boar ribs with a Thai-inspired spicy peanut dipping sauce. And no Reata cookbook would be complete without the fiery jalapeño cheese grits or the unrivaled “Giant” onion rings. So if you can’t drop by one of the restaurants and set a spell, Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine will give you a taste of Reata that’s as big and bold as the state of Texas itself.

Marfa Modern

Marfa Modern
Author: Helen Thompson
Publisher: The Monacelli Press, LLC
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2016-10-25
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1580934730

Twenty-one houses in and around Marfa, Texas, provide a glimpse at creative life and design in one of the art world’s most intriguing destinations. When Donald Judd began his Marfa project in the early 1970s, it was regarded as an idiosyncratic quest. Today, Judd is revered for his minimalist art and the stringent standards he applied to everything around him, including interiors, architecture, and furniture. The former water stop has become a mecca for artists, art pilgrims, and design aficionados drawn to the creative enclave, the permanent installations called “among the largest and most beautiful in the world,” and the austerely beautiful high-desert landscape. In keeping with Judd’s site-specific intentions, those who call Marfa home have made a choice to live in concert with their untamed, open surroundings. Marfa Modern features houses that represent unique responses to this setting—the sky, its light and sense of isolation—some that even predate Judd’s arrival. Here, conceptual artist Michael Phelan lives in a former Texaco service station with battery acid stains on the concrete floor and a twenty-foot dining table lining one wall. A chef’s modest house comes with the satisfaction of being handmade down to its side tables and bath, which expands into a private courtyard with an outdoor tub. Another artist uses the many rooms of her house, a former jail, to shift between different mediums—with Judd’s Fort D. A. Russell works always visible from her second-story sun porch. Extraordinary building costs mean that Marfa dwellers embrace a culture of frontier ingenuity and freedom from excess—salvaged metal signs become sliding doors and lengths of pipe become lighting fixtures, industrial warehouses are redesigned after the area’s white-cube galleries to create space for private or personally created art collections, and other materials are suggested by the land itself: walls are made of adobe bricks or rammed earth to form sculptural courtyards, or, in one remarkable instance, a mix of mud and brick plastered with local soils, cactus mucilage, horse manure, and straw.

Oasis

Oasis
Author: iO Tillett Wright
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2020-11-10
Genre: House & Home
ISBN: 0525575162

Welcome to the desert. Welcome home. This visually stunning tour of the world’s most amazing desert homes will inspire you to create an oasis with “desert vibes” wherever you are. Creatives are drawn in by the extreme landscapes and limited resources of the desert; in fact, they’re inspired by them, and the homes they’ve built here prove the power of an oasis. From renovated Airstreams to sprawling, modern stucco, desert has become the new beachfront. In Oasis, artist iO Tillett Wright captures the best of this specific culture that emphasizes living simply, beautifully, and in connection with the earth. He highlights the homes that define this desert mindset, featuring the classics like Georgia O’Keefe’s in Abiquiu, New Mexico, alongside more modern homes such as Michael Barnard’s Solar House in Marfa, Texas. With Casey Dunn’s stunning photography, Oasis will transport you to these relaxing refuges, where you’ll learn what elements create the balance of intentionality, ease, style, and function that these homes exude.