QIPSAs

Welcome to No Country For Old Interns, Glasstire’s new blog focusing on visual art in West Texas—specifically Marfa. Every blog worth reading has a FAQs or an “About Me” page, right?  So form demands a QIPSA post, or “Questions I’m Pretending Someone Asked.”

Marfa, where’s that?
Located at the intersection of U.S. Routes 90 and 67 in Presidio County, Texas, Marfa is about 30 miles from the Mexican border and 170 miles from the nearest Starbucks. 

 

Sounds like it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Why would anyone go there?
Some people travel here to see the Marfa Mystery Lights; others just stop on their way to or from Big Bend National Park. The population of this tiny town swells during the Marfa Film Festival, and it’s an important destination for people into gliders and soaring. About 11,000 people a year journey here to visit the Chinati Foundation, a contemporary art museum founded by minimalist sculptor Donald Judd. And the Coen brothers shot some sequences of No Country for Old Men in Marfa.

OK, I get it. That’s where the name of your blog comes from. Does this mean you are an old intern?
I am an intern at the Chinati Foundation. And I’ve been interning for a while now—at the Cleveland Museum of Art while finishing my master’s degree at Case Western Reserve University and then at the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Drawing Center in New York. In addition to Glasstire, my art writing has appeared in the Scene, the Pitch, the Kansas City Star and Review.

So, yeah.  Some days it feels that way.

What will you write in your No Country For Old Interns posts?

I’ll cover exhibitions and art-related events in and around Marfa. In the process, I aim to convey this small community’s character and its specific place in the art world. If you can’t make the trek to Marfa, I hope you’ll add No Country to your bookmarks or Google Reader. And if you’re thinking about a visit, I hope my posts convince you it’s worth the effort.