November 14th show!

Tularosa Basin Gallery Passport

Mano y Mente will be participating in the inaugural Tularosa Basin Gallery Passport Tour. The fall 2009 Mano y Mente exhibition will be one of 15 galleries/exhibitions listed in the passport and distributed throughout 5 local towns. Participants who fill up their passports receive gift certificates to a local high-end restaurant and/or signed prints by renowned local artist, Robin Makowski. Mano y Mente's director is one of two founders of the event, which draws additional attention to the Tularosa Basin's growing art scene. More information to follow!

Fall 2009 Session Arrives

The three artists that compose the Fall 2009 session have arrived to tackle a new range of obstacles in the Tularosa Basin. One treks up a White Sands dune with his "plein air" easel in tote. Double click on the photo to view the keen detail on the still-wet canvas.

Agave Greets the Fall Session

The Mano y Mente mammoth agave prepares to greet the fall 2009 session. It has resided on the property since 2000 and currently stands about 5 feet tall by 5 feet across. Many an artist has created work inspired by this beautiful beast of a plant.

Tularosa Hollyhocks in Full Bloom

One would never suspect that the hollyhock is native to southwest and central Asia given how vigorously it has taken to this region of New Mexico. While roaming the streets of Tularosa one can find them in abandoned lots, alongside colorful buildings, in unfrequented alleyways, and as colorful giants in manicured perennial gardens. Above you see a rose-colored hollyhock family alongside the Mano y Mente wall.

Painting Spotlight: Trusty Tractor

Artists seek inspiration in objects of current use as well as those dusted over by time and past utility. A fall 2008 Mano y Mente resident, Jafang Lu, painted the 40 year-old tractor above, which still sits outside the Mano y Mente studio awaiting its next go at an expansive field or a bountiful harvest. Lu, who studies and teaches at Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, paints the radiance of light in patient, thin layers. She returns to each of her subjects at the same time of day and in the same quality of light to create consistent hues and shadows. Her works illustrate this patience and the depth of her colors give her subjects brilliant life.

Spring 09 Muses: Old Trucks

some trucks hide in the brush like hidden stones....

some hide among the wreckage of a forgotten building...

and others become exterior accessories, still shiny and good friends with an elderly prickly pear cactus.


"Lovingly worn" trucks have become muses for the spring 2009 artists. See some of these mechanical relics in all their painted glory at the May 2nd show, 220 Granado Street, Tularosa, NM.

May 2nd, 7pm Show!

Information about Mano y Mente

Mano y Mente is a small, private artist-in-residence program located in the historic, beautiful town of Tularosa. “Mano y Mente” means “Hand and Mind” in Spanish. The name reflects the program’s creative and pensive nature and is in Spanish to pay tribute to the region’s cultural influences.

Mano y Mente is not a school, the director is not a professor, the "artists in residence" are not students. Mano y Mente is an artist program designed for professional artists to focus, create, and exchange ideas. Mano y Mente participants are selected from a national and international pool of applicants and are invited to spend 10 weeks living in Tularosa while painting throughout southwestern NM. Artists are chosen based credentials including talent, diversity of art experience, productivity, individuality, and compatibility.

During each session, Mano y Mente participants spend every other week at a different landscape painting region (White Sands, Three Rivers, Lincoln National Forest, etc.). The alternating weeks are spent in-studio working on individually inspired works of art.The work exhibited at each final show is inevitably influenced by the stunning local landscapes alongside the artists’ own experiences, techniques, and interests. Styles of present and past Mano y Mente artists have ranged from pin-point realism, expressionism, to surrealism and abstraction.

The use of the studio and housing space, and the transportation to local landscape-painting regions is free to the Mano y Mente artists. Both the patron and the director/founder are art and local history enthusiasts and hope that each session’s participants leave New Mexico with the same zeal and curiosity!

Spring 2009: Dog Canyon

This week we have ventured to Dog Canyon. Its mountains display twisted and overlapping rock formations, diverse desert plants, and shadows that shift from deep indigos to red by the hour. All in all, Dog Canyon presents an overwhelming amount of artistic inspiration and painterly challenges.

Sprouting Spring

Artists from the 2009 spring session arrived to find the Mano y Mente property on the verge of spring. There still is a slight chill in the air but it's slowly disappearing to give way to leafy foliage and t-shirts. Above, Mano y Mente artist Ember Soberman focuses on cactus pears against a deep red rock wall.

Below, you see Soberman's stunning "Hey there Prickly Pear" in all its cheerful glory. It was the result of devout investigation over the course of several weeks spent alongside the prickly pear cactus shown above. Soberman employs multiple layers of see through washes to create a weathered, atmospheric aura throughout her pieces. "Hey there Prickly Pear" is one of four cactus paintings she has created during her stay at Mano y Mente. Soberman, armed with bravery and watercolor pencils, also cozied up to the mammoth, spiky Mano y Mente agave.

Overview talk: Ice Cream!

Two times per session (about once every three weeks) each artist gives fellow participants a 10-30 min. in-studio talk about something related to art or creativity that they’re interested in and think the other artists in residence would benefit from. Artists have complete freedom and creative license in designing their overview talks....

This week an overview talk was given on the culinary art of old fashioned ice cream. In the photo you see a 60 - 100 year old ice cream hand cranker. A metal container filled with cream, sugar, and flavoring is surrounded by ice. The container and its internal wheel slowly mix the ice cream at the same time the mixture is slowly frozen from the ice.

Photos of the finished, tasty ice cream are to follow!

New Spring 2009 session!

The spring 2009 artists arrive this week. Tularosa's winter is about to cease. Soon the bees will buzz, the wind will blow, and green will once again conquer this currently grey oasis. We look forward to another productive, innovative session!
(photo courtesy of "flickr".... great Tulie art exists in the most unexpected locations. In this case we're looking at a water tower at the edge of town. )