These last several weeks, I have struggled to write my Gust artist statement. I always start by getting too much into the history of the environment. My first attempt focused too much on the Dust bowls of the ‘30s, ‘50s, ’70sand ’80s. Mainly because I was not aware, there were any other dust bowls other than in the dirty thirties, and this unknown knowledge was surprising. Sunday, I called my Mom, Minnie Lee Travis, on my morning walk, and we had an interesting conversation about Dell City and the dust. The conversation started when I told her I was using my Gust sculpture to look at regenerative agriculture practices as a solution to wind erosion and desertification. She inspired this connection of the piece to regenerative agriculture A few years ago, when she mentioned the time they ended up with two feet of dust in their home after a storm. Hearing this comment was when it occurred to me that the desert it's wind and dust that consumed my early years was human-made. On my walk my Mom went on to tell me she used to tape all the windows shut to keep the dust-out. If the wind was blowing, you could not see to drive on the road to our home. She was not sure if I would remember. I mentioned the government’s solution to the 1930’s dust bowl was a wall of trees. She commented yes that in the ‘50s, the government sent them free trees to plant. She went on to tell me that one year after a particularly bad crop of cotton, my father bought a new plow that would dig extra deep to reach the “good soil.” That year’s crop was no better, and the dust storms were worse. I expect my father had consulted with one of the American Farm Bureau representatives who would have recommended the plow. Lastly, my mother mentioned that she remembers one day meeting an old rancher from the area. Dell City did not have a doctor, so once a week or so, a doctor from El Paso would spend a day in Dell City, seeing patients. She was standing in line to see the doctor when she met an old rancher for the first time. They discussed the weather as strangers do. In their conversation, he told my mom that he could remember when the land around Dell City used to be covered in grasses as high as a horse’s belly.
While farming in Dell City my parents had three children, me and my big brothers so of course a grassy area by the house was important. She said It was a struggle because the wind would blow all the dust from the plowed bare fields into the yard and bury the grass. Grass stopped the dust yet it was never suggested as a solution to the dust storms.
I am adding images to this post of my last visit to Dell City.
My Mom looking at grave markers in Dell City in 2017.
A view of the landscape from the front walkway of our old home. This is one of the two areas my parents had grass for us to play on.
A view from the side of the house where my brother Dean and I used to play with toy cement trucks and dig holes.