
Marfa


All the news from the “Dallas suburb” of Marfa and the “adjacent” regions of El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley.

Small-town papers often serve as bearers of civic pride. But the former owners of Marfa’s Big Bend Sentinel and Presidio’s International learned long ago that writing the news meant looking out for their neighbors.

On this week’s National Podcast of Texas, fashion designer and 'Project Runway' judge Maxwell and filmmaker Jessy Price discuss the deeper messages that clothes deliver, dressing Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama, and filming in Marfa.

After a community outcry, the company behind ACL Fest and Lollapalooza postpones its plans for an event next year, but the future is uncertain.


Former Maiya's chef Mark Scott and his partners have created something special with inventive sides and memorable smoked meat.

Bart, Homer, Lisa, Marge, and Grampa Simpson made the trip on Sunday night.

A segregated school for Mexican American children until 1965, the building now serves as a community center and celebration of Hispanic life.

Spoiler: The answer is yes.

Dismayed by sky-high rents and yearning for a slower-paced lifestyle, a new generation of Texans is ditching the big city and fostering a Rural renaissance across the state.

No Wi-Fi, no problem. ‘The Queen of Cool' turned an old ranch bunkhouse into a West Texas getaway, complete with a dreamy desert bathhouse.

What to do, where to eat, and more if you’re heading to Fort Davis, Marfa, Marathon, and/or Big Bend this season.

"It was one of those rare moments." Photographers who were there for the snow among the cacti share their favorite images.

Impress the discerning individualist in your life with beautifully crafted, one-of-a-kind items that evoke the defiant spirit of West Texas.

Enterprising Texans of all stripes are dreaming up and creating everything from better bicycles and baseball bats to stunning furniture and fashion. We’ve scoured the state to round up 100 Made in Texas gifts (for everyone on your list) that represent the current heyday of Texas creativity.

What it meant to be fully present for “Scales" during Chinati Weekend.


This year’s heavy rains have brought countless blessings to West Texas—and one very nasty weed.



It’s the favorable acreage-to-other-humans ratio that draws most visitors, who come for the space that this Chihuahuan Desert outpost has in spades.


How one feline (and then a couple more, and then another) conquered both our hearts and our mice.


Elmgreen thinks TxDOT needs to change their definition of an advertising sign.
Whose idea was it to install a Playboy sculpture in Marfa?

On August 28, 2013, we talked to Richard Phillips, the artist behind the controversial Playboy Marfa installation. Read more about the art-versus-advertising debate here. FRANCESCA MARI: When were you tapped to do this piece for Playboy? RICHARD PHILLIPS: I was contacted before the New Year by Neville Wakefield, who…

When Playboy Enterprises—yes, that Playboy Enterprises—erected a forty-foot-tall sculpture near Marfa, it was convinced the town would appreciate its take on the local art scene. Instead it started a revealing debate.

The dustup around Playboy's controversial art installation outside of Marfa revealed regulations that might require the removal of the famous Prada Marfa sculpture.

Dallas-based photographer Allison V. Smith took over Texas Monthly's Instagram account during her trip to Marfa this weekend. Here are some highlights from her trip.
Beyoncé swung through Marfa in early July and just posted pictures from her trip on her Tumblr.

Smithsonian magazine names the West Texas cultural oasis one of the "20 Best Small Towns in America."

The first time I drove by hotelier Liz Lambert’s high-desert “kibbutz,” which sits on a large, flat plot of dusty land just off U.S. 67, I mistook it for a trailer park. Which it basically is, except instead of dumpy double-wides, it’s strewn with seven sleekly restored vintage trailers, from…

From Fort Worth’s Kimbell to Houston’s Menil, Texas’s museums are home to some of the world's most important paintings and sculptures. To devise a list of our ten greatest works on view, we asked more than sixty curators, gallery owners, critics, and other insiders for their favorites.

ROUTE: West of Ozona to Sanderson DISTANCE: 85 miles NUMBER OF COUNTIES: 3 WHAT TO READ: James H. Evans’s Crazy From the Heat A drive whose sole purpose is to experience the simple pleasure of being behind the wheel has a few requirements. The route must lead…
More than sixty art insiders gave us their list of favorite works of art to see in Texas. So grab your notepad, sketchbook, or iPad and take the ultimate tour of must-see art in Texas.
From John Warne Gates peddling barbed wire in San Antonio to a group of cowboys and ranchers holding the first rodeo in Pecos
From John Warne Gates peddling barbed wire in San Antonio to a group of cowboys and ranchers holding the first rodeo in Pecos

In Donald Judd’s last interview before his death, in 1994, the artist explained that he’d first come to Marfa two decades earlier because he “just wanted a place in the Southwest for the summertime.” Whether he intended it or not, this far West Texas town has since become the…

Jordan Breal talks about searching for vacation spots, driving across Texas, and eating bone marrow.

South from Alpine to Study Butte, west to Presidio, north to Marfa, and east to Alpine.
A masterpiece of courthouse architecture in Waxahachie, a handsome jail of native stone in Marfa: Significant structures line the streets of five terrific town centers.
Bronzes by Remington and Russell in Orange, Quanah Parker’s trail bonnet in Canyon: Ten spaces that excel at the art of exhibition.


But all the casual sex and violence in director Larry Clark’s new film, Marfa Girl, is less surprising than its means of distribution.

As a recent study of hotel booking trends pointed out, us Texans prefer to vacation in Texas. Since our last roundup of the state's most notable lodgings was in 2004, I thought it was high time to revisit the subject. So I drafted a list of 44 hotels that have opened or undergone significant renovations in the last 8 years. I then winnowed that list down and booked rooms (anonymously) at 24 properties across the state to determine my favorites. Although my full reviews will be available next week (the November issue goes live on TexasMonthly.com on Wednesday and hits newsstands on Thursday), I wanted to go ahead and share my ten favorites (plus the five that nearly made the cut) . . . .

In one of my favorite descriptions of Marfa, writer David McDannald points out that sometimes it’s “a shadow of a town” and sometimes it’s “a desert Mardi Gras.” At the end of this month, West Texas’s buzziest destination will be lit up like Bourbon Street…

The grumpy Texas literary legend rips the Texas art and music mecca in his review of a new book about Elizabeth Taylor, calling Marfa "as bleak a place as you'll find in America."