He enjoys being referred to as the Howard Finster of Mexico. If so, he is the irreverent Finster and certainly not a Reverend. Anado , is an artist whose his home and garden is his pallet. Anado was grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and studied art in Oklahoma, then migrated to the New York art scene before settling in the little village of La Cienequita just outside of San Miguel de Allende, MX, in 2001. He founded his art farm and garden in 2003. Continuously building his studios, out houses, walls, gates and fences to hold his mosaics and paint, Anado and his friends such as Atlantan Carol Jackson are also scouring second hand shops for objects. Robert Rauschenberg with his “combines would have loved the cache of found objects that are recycled here. My favorite is the “wheel of fortune” that was once a tractor tire.
Rich bold colors of the region, myth and imagination are put to work on every surface of his home and garden. The mosaic walls are a collaboration with students and an ongoing work in progress. It may not all be perfect, but it has at least been attempted and expressed.
Anado’s gardens are organic and organically expanding from the house to the studios with a side step to the pen of rescued donkeys. The spirit of the place is organic as well. You don’t have to be an outsider artist to create art in your life, however; you do have to go outside. Perhaps, even a bit outside yourself.
Marcia Weber
Gardens to Love