This old cemetery in Terlingua Ghost Town feels unexpectedly sacred and genuine, despite being a popular tourist stop just downhill of the Starlight Theatre and the famous Terlingua porch, with its sunset view of the distant Chisos.

Marble headstones and praying cherubs need not apply for residency here. Enter this gate in silence, then weave through the rough ground, around the handmade wooden and filigree crosses, borderlands' folk art and roughly, but lovingly constructed stonework and adobe grottos that fill this rough acre of desert.
Most of those who sleep under this blanket of snow were mercury miners c1900. They had hard, hard lives and likely, unpolished spirits tough as iron.
Someone cared enough about each of these ghosts to mark their resting place with whatever skills and materials they had. I don't paint cemeteries, but this one is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, beautiful in its quirky authenticity.

Who said cemeteries must be creepy and serious? Ghosts know how to smile, too. And I'm sure they do just that when snow covers all the rough edges of this site.