Beautiful Women are Beautiful

We have heard from several people that women are beautiful. Martha's been told her eyes are beautiful. "Honey! Are those contacts?" And we've been told WE were beautiful. It's always good to flatter the person holding the microphone.

We have taken lots of pictures of depictions of beauty in women and the female form. Here are a few from Webb Gallery in Waxahachie, Texas:






Brian from Sam's B.B. in Ausitn, Tx said "Women are beautiful because of the way they bring life. Respect all women. Think about your grandma. Gotta go back to the grandma."



James, "The Artists", caricature artist on the Jackson Square in New Orleans. "Beautiful women with character. If you don't have no character, you don't have life. No matter how ugly you are or how pretty you are, God created us in his own image."




Bruce Webb who said "Beautiful women are beautiful" also pointed out "You have to have something hideous to recognize something beautiful. You need polarity. There is also beauty in things that are not beautiful."

I don't hate people anymore: Part I

Finally have a moment to myself and internet access at the same time. YAY! On occasion I am known to get a little cranky and hate on people in general. People can do such sucky things, you know? You can get caught up in it. Maybe this comes from living in L.A. I don't know. But anyway, this trip is giving me something good. I am remembering that people also do A LOT of unsucky things too.

We have been asking the people we meet what their idea of beauty is. Instead of answers about physical appearance, we are getting something else. So far the people we have met don't care about how you/they look. They think beauty is your story, how a bat flies, chasing a solar eclipse, or your big nose. Cliche yes. Maybe no one wants to admit they have superficial thoughts. Probably a little. I love that it has been so touchy feely groovy so far. We really are making friends. Every interview starts off as strangers and ends with a hug. But I am also ready for something meaty.

Heck, I'll admit it. I am interested in the superficial. I've got me some yummy insecurities and I want to know more! So today we are going to do a little beauty day in Atlanta and we'll see what happens. But for now I'll catch up on the trip so far.

After we left Marfa we headed over to Waxahachie, TX to visit Bruce and Julie Webb, owners of the fantastic Webb Gallery. You must go there! Here is a little jewel for you to enjoy:



Here are some things in the store:





When we interviewed Julie she told us her idea of beauty was the Murphy family. Perry Murphy was the first person to come into their store when they opened and she has been friends with their family ever since. He is an artist who creates these amazing hats and vests from found objects and wears them around town. There are 7 siblings but we mainly hung out with Perry and his brother David. David has made this crazy cool cart with sirens and lights and radios.


This me and Esther looking at Perry's collection. That's David on the left.


This is on of Perry's vests.


Perry in one of his cool hats and below is a clip of David's cart.



So after visiting with the Murphy's we had a delicious lunch with the Webb's (homemade fish tacos that were the best I have ever had) and interviewed them. Esther will writing more about that later.






Part II coming tomorrow.

Real is Beautiful

I started off this trip thinking that most people would find our "What is Beauty?" question superficial, but the reality is that people have a lot to say about this topic.

We stopped off at Pat's Restaurant in Henderson, Louisiana. It was just outside of Lafayette. We had to ask a woman at a car wash for directions. We were greeted by Harvey, the owner, Pat's son. Harvey treated us to a sampling of fried catfish and showed us the alligators out back. The shrimp and okra gumbo was so rich and full of flavor. Insanely good! Homemade secret recipes passed down from the family's French-speaking grandmother. Too bad we didn't arrive on the weekend for all the music and dancing! Good food, good people, we left happy. America is full of real people who care about each other and their community.

This trip has been different from other driving trips because we started off with a big question. Answers seem to emerge all around. People have been kind, generous and have the best stories to tell. In the car on the way out, Martha said, "That was so good. I want to cry with happiness." It's been almost a spiritual experience.

Martha will be blogging real soon.

Small Town Texas

Texas is Man Land

The whole time Esther and I have been in Texas we have been searching for a beauty shop so we could stop in and say hello and do some interviews. We haven't had much luck. What we found is that every town has a pawn shop, at least one BBQ, a truck dealer, a place called Guns n' Gold or something similar, a taxidermist/deer processor, an auto body shop and a tractor sales place. No beauty shops.

Granted we have been traveling through small towns, but it seems like the beauty is done off the beaten path out of view from the main roads maybe in someone's home. With all the large pickup trucks passing us, we decided that Texas is Man Land. Here is some of what we have seen:







Not that beauty is only a feminine thing. It was a start for us and we were surprised to find so few beauty salons on our route. I actually think a lot of the manly stuff is beautiful. Here are the few feminine things we did discover:




We'll be uploading some more stuff tonight and tomorrow morning. Thanks for looking.

Makin' Friends

Driving into Marfa, Texas, the first thing we came across was the Prada Marfa by the artists Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen. It was pretty trashed. We wondered who goes around beating up isolated site-specific permanent land art.

Buck and her husband Camp are creative, quirky in all the best ways,
and live in an amazing church-art studio!

Everyone in Marfa has a Chainsaw

We knew we were near Marfa when we saw the fake Prada store. It is all spooky and full of gunshots and vandalism. I could feel the spookiness and got the willies. It was dark and my mind got all Blair Witch.


Finally arrived in Marfa at 11:45 pm yesterday at the Thunderbird Lounge to this:



This was a band from El Paso and there were a million kids who followed them to Marfa. It was so L.A. which was random as we are trying to get away from L.A.ness. Luckily, we met up with Rachel and Buck and Camp. They are people from Marfa who know Esther. We interviewed Buck and some of the El Paso kids who thought we were totally uncool and lame. I like being uncool and lame. Much less pressure.





Next we headed over to Buck and Camp's place for some vino. Amazing house next to a renovated Church that Camp uses for a studio, there was scintillating conversation and chewing on some random leaves from South America?? This is where we came across our first chainsaw.





OK so now it is 2:00 or 3:00 am and the Marfa folks are tired and need sleep. Back to Rachel's pad where we were staying. She was so nice and went to someone else's house to stay so we could all have a bed. (People have been incredibly generous). She has a groovy front porch with couches and a chainsaw! I see a chainsaw and the first thing I think is MORE WINE. Sitting on a porch couch, wine flowing, empty darkness all around, weird animal noises, branches breaking "out there" mind in Blair Witch UFO alien abduction mode equals freak out! Finally could sleep at about 4:30 am (hey we are still on cally time man). It was the most surreal night I have ever had. Frickin awesome and we have it all on tape. YES!






So two houses, two chainsaws = all people in Marfa have chainsaws. Love IT!!!

Esther will be posting soon. We have been going NON-STOP. Haven't had much time for art yet, just interviewing, photographing and doing sketches in my journal. Esther is doing some awesome drawings. We might need to slow down. So more will be coming. YAY.