We are happy to announce the release of Marfa Picture Stories, a short book of poetry and images by Kala Philo that was inspired by Marfa and wide open spaces.

To browse a select assortment of unique gifts featuring imagery from the book, see WTPrint's cafepress shop and spread some Marfa cheer.  Sweet ornaments, cool journals, and more!
(www.cafepress/wtprint.com)

Best News: As rugged and remote as it may seem to visitors, the Big Bend ecosystem is fragile and needs our care. WTPrint donates 5% of profit from purchases of the book and related items to Friends of Big Bend National Park.

	The book contains photographs, seven poems and an essay inspired by Marfa, Texas, a small town in remote West Texas with a long history of attracting a diverse array of visitors.

From the book's introduction:
Today the average visitor comes from busy, noisy far away places. As pilgrims we may come for art or dancing lights, but soon our facade begins to unravel. We find the light, space, quiet, lack of Starbucks and dependable shop hours a disorienting experience. If we are willing, a spell is cast by the still plains of the desert, ringed by aloof mountains shifting with the sun. Our interior voices, masked by the white noise of everyday life, start to emerge.

That is what this book is: a short collection of voices speaking in poems. Some are my voice, others are those that spoke to me during a New Years get away trip. At first I eyed my wordy progeny warily. For starters, I was a bit surprised to have a Spanish haiku manifest alongside a poem about gurus.

Now I see that the poems’ diverse voices reflect the places we “visit” when we go to Marfa, a physical space of healing openness and beauty that prods the creative linkages between mind, heart, and art. When we create, the mind conjures and the heart gifts, but in the midst of daily distractions the former may not share well and the latter is fickle and quickly retreats.

If you are interested in the backstory for some of the poems, I've posted some notes here.