My Teepee at El Cosmico in Marfa, TX (my photo!) paired with A.P.C. Texas Jumpsuit.

A year ago, I started this escapade with an artist map and a jean jumpsuit. So it seems only fitting to mark the first anniversary of Wear + Here with another evocation of creativity and denim (so aptly named by A.P.C). But this time, I actually did what I’d described months ago. A satisfying evolution of all this wanderlust.

True to its name, El Cosmico – a Marfa arcadia I’ve longed to visit – is its own creative universe: the brainchild of visionary hotelier Liz Lambert realized by Jack Sanders of Design Build Adventure, who approaches projects as sandlots: “Get to know each other. Take your time. Make something happen. And have fun.” All of which happened in abundance during the five-day camp I attended at El Cosmico. Sanders recruited a welding Dream Team – overall-clad artist Butch Anthony, a sophisticate in a hayseed shell, and soul singer/songwriter Dan Dyer, a talent quick with wit and humility. Together with an accomplished crew of fellow campers/seekers, we scoured the high desert, picking junk piles, sponging art and design, marveling at Marfa. The goal – to make a junkyard chair – led to days filled with seeing and learning and experimenting – an agenda I’d like to adopt in my everyday. The creed of authenticity that laced Camp DBA continues to inspire – this post, my plans. Wherever this Trans-Pecos-seeded scheming takes me, I feel aloft on the imprint of sleeping in a teepee and welding in denim with people living out their creativity.

My West Texas adventure began months ago as musing and may have remained as such if not for this bespoke forum and my supportive friends. Wear + Here has motivated me to scout out aesthetic outlets, first in words, now in action. What began as a personal challenge to articulate the way I see has become a force all its own. For this, I am grateful. And grateful for the latitude to keep going: There’s so much more to explore, here and out there.