ROUND AND SQUARE

Upon returning to Marfa from holiday in Paris and Barcelona, my inspirations and ideas are imploding. Moments of happiness, smells, images, tastes, connections, lessons, feelings, faces and textures mill in my mind but when asked to verbally articulate the experience, I'm at a loss! As the wispy strands of meaning and memory begin to collide and bond, I will jot them down perhaps via the Mirth blog, as many of my thoughts revolve around the spaces I spend time in.

For the whole of our (my best friend and I) vacation in Europe, I set the personal goal of seeing at least one monument, museum or piece of history a day. That one place became our destination which took us anywhere from one to eight hours to locate. The time spent exploring, wandering and seeking was wonderful. In Marfa, I watch tourists wander and I am the local.  

In Barcelona, I realized we were walking in circles. Then I looked down to find that we were also walking on a circle patterned sidewalk, on a street lined with concrete spheres (all pictured above). The trend continued the remainder of our time there because the four way stops in Barcelona are rounded so that cars can park in front of the stores that share the four way stop. Naturally, my friend and I, involved in an intensely-heated conversation about anything from love to politics, found ourselves wandering to the left or right as opposed to around and straight--the sangria at lunch thwarted our navigational efforts most days but made the getting lost more enjoyable. 

Of all the sights/sites we encountered, the creations of Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi were most gratifying--delightfully round and indulgent. In addition to the innovations and advances Gaudi made in the field of architecture he fabricated spaces modeled honestly after nature and its elements. The curves, convex and  concave, form loose lines that define one space from the next, evoking the sensation of actually being in nature. Gaudi's Casa Batilo, La Pedrera and Park Guell reflect the round about way I spent time in Barcelona, veering off track to have a nibble there and altering plans to experience something never seen or felt before. I intend to incorporate my traveling mentality into daily life, keeping close the idea that there is no right or wrong way to reach one's destination.

If Gaudi's round spaces inspire care-free living, what inspiration is stirred by Donald Judd's squares in Marfa? Resting peacefully in the landscape, settled and heavy on the ground, Judd's boxes are wondrously splendid intertwined with the desert terrain and endless blue sky. Looking around the store with careful attention to the round and square shapes, it seems quite clear that the round would not be as lovely without the square and vice versa.

-Jessica for Mirth