Manú Menéndez - Dreams and Reality (interview)

Soul Reactor

Do what you love, Become what you love.
When you do things from heart, the universe conspires to make them come true. Remember that the natural law of dreams is that everyone of them can be real and are waiting for you to make them real. Trust in your intuition, follow your heart and fly free through art and colors. The limits do not exist.
- Manú Menéndez

neso: How are you Manu?

Manu: I am grateful for the sacred experiences that life gives us every moment. Thanks Neso for inviting me to this interview.

neso: You said when we spoke last time that you're heading to a very sacred desert in Mexico called Wirikuta to spend there the last day of the year. How was it?

Manu: Wirikuta desert is a magical and sacred experience. Definitely the perfect place to die and be reborn spiritually. The right place to find inner peace, universal love and especially freedom.
Wirikuta is a very beautiful place in Mexico. Here the sacred desert has a very big importance for the traveler who seeks answers in his heart. All answers are born from silence. Silence is the bridge that connects our being with Source, God, the universe that constantly creates life. From this holy quiet place, our heart heals and it's liberated from all boundaries and paradigms that do not allow him to create links of connection with the creation.
For Wixarrika cosmogony (which are one of the important indigenous groups in Mexico) The fire grandpa that for me is the "Tata is the guide of the dawn´s hunters in the encounter with the blue deer and the birth of the sun. That's why in the sacred Wirikuta desert is where the sun was born for the first time.
I believe the desert is the magical place to find inspiration in the life of an artist. And I believe in the deep of my heart that being inspired is the way to stay connected with the cosmic source. We are not human beings seeking for spirituality in our lives. We are spiritual beings having human experiences.

neso: You are from Mexico City. Tell me please something about this place. Is it good place to live in?

Manu: Mexico City is a place with a very powerful magic. It is a sacred space where the cultural diversity is connected and allows the exchange of knowledge among its inhabitants and visitors. Despite of being a city with a large population you can always feel a great connection and warmth in the heart of the people who inhabit it.

neso: Is it a friendly place for an artist and someone who does art for a living?

Manu: The art in Mexico is very beautiful for its colorful fabrics, the animal masks, the traditional dances, celebrations, markets, squares, the delicious food with chili, architecture, music, painting, and especially the magic of its residents. It definitely is a friendly place for artists. you can always find inspiration at the "City of the infinite possibilities".
I currently live in a place called the Hill of the Star in Mexico City. At the top of the hill where I live there is a pre-hispanic pyramid that has more than two thousand years of existence. On this place the birth of fire is celebrated. Dancers, singers and musicians gather in the pyramid and do ceremonies in all around the space to be thankful for the gifts that life gives to the world all the time.

neso: Can you tell me please something about your beginnings in art?

Manu: Sure. My beginnings in art occurred at the time I discovered that dreams and reality are not separated. Both are woven with the same creator thread. Since I was a little child I could travel through different planes of conciousness and dimensions through the reverie. Daydreaming means to live in dreams as we do in reality. Being aware of the dream. So I think that all planes of consciousness are concentrated in this eternal moment. We just have to open our perception and have the intention of believe that we live in the infinity. Because when you start to believe from intuition and heart you are able to create infinite realities just imagining them.

neso: Was there any particular moment you decided to do art as your main activity?

Manu: One of the most significant moments of the beginning of my creative process was through a daydream I had with an spiritual guide that appeared to me in a red desert beside the Sunset. He was an Old man with child's eyes who helped me to remember the vision to materialize dreams and blessings. Making the invisible visible, manifesting the spiritual in the material world through Art, vibration and colors.

neso: I had an occasion to see your early works. We can see clearly that your style has evolved to current, more spiritual, intensive and colorful form full of details and mysterious beings. How did you get to this point?

Manu: The continuous spiritual quest through the Art of color has led me to believe in a way where all matter is created by particles, molecules and vibrations. We are pure energy of the source on balance. Is stillness and movement in one dance. The universal Love returning to its original form of being energy and oneness.
The mysterious beings full of color and magic that are reflected in my works are the Guardians of the Spirit. Animals, plants, rocks, sky, sun, moon, and the same elements become teachers and mystical guides that create links of union and power where the human being acquires the ability to unify the body, mind and spirit with Mother Nature.

some early works...

neso: All your paintings seem to send some message and energy. What do want to tell through your art?

Manu: The Art is the medium which lead us to the biggest purpose of all in life that is called love. I like make love to the ego through art and for that I think I am an artist from the spirit and believe that art is the greatest tool of healing, unification and connection in the universe because it allows us realize that everything exists and we perceive is created by our thoughts, feelings and our deepest desires. There is no real outside, everything that happens around us is the result of what we reap in our heart, mind and spirit . It is why we always go from inside to inside.
The light that guides our interior and that always walk with us is our Mind (body-mind-thought). The universal source, God, the Cosmos, the Dhamma, or however you want to name it, not made us to its image and likeness, It made us to its thought; as well as God creates life that inspires and amazes us moment by moment through their thoughts, we are also creators.
When you are awareness that the unconditional love of the creator spirit is within us, we become instruments, bridges and information channels through which life and its blessings expand in the universe as brush strokes, resonances, colors, stars, music, dance, beats, looks, galaxies, hugs, harmony ... They are the holy encounters and the master experiences where creator and created become oneness. Everything that happens in the eyes of the being that has awakened to life is sacred
And as A Course in Miracles says: "Create is to love and create may not be difficult if we consider that we born to be creators.

neso: I was always wondering how do you achieve such intense, expressive and saturated colours. Tell me please what is your secret. Is there any photoshop work after the painting is done?

Manu: The colors and transparencies let me find the expression in painting where the intensity, vibration and energy are materialized. The canvas becomes the cosmos and every brush stroke on the canvas is a blessing that is born into the universe and therefore there is no photoshop in my paintings.

neso: Do you listen to music while you work, or maybe you prefer silence? Do you have any favorite genres?

Manu: I have a great devotion to music, so I do not like to close myself to hear only some genres. This openness to music and in general to life, allows me to amaze me all the time for everything new that comes.

neso: So i guess you like live concerts...

Manu: I love live concerts because they allow me to connect directly with the here and now and the eternal present. Indeed music is cosmic mathematic.
Another thing that I like of live concerts is because you can hear the spirits that are inside the instruments. So I think that one does not choose the musical instrument, the instrument chooses you.

neso: Do you currently follow any other artists? Which artist made the strongest impression on you lately?

Manu: I think the artist who most impresses me in every moment is Nature. In it I can find infinity of colors, shapes, textures, transparencies, feelings and especially great teachings for my creative process.

neso: Nature is a great artist indeed. Are there any "human" artists who made the strongest impression on you lately?

Manu: There are some artists from the spirit that I think their art is a great gift to humanity. They are Juan Carlos Taminchi (Peru), Fabian Jimenez (Mexico), Arturo Cordero (Mexico), Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo among others.

neso: Do you own works from other artists?

Manu: Most of the works that I have at home are gifts from artists-friends I appreciate.

neso: Where do you seek your inspiration?

Manu: Inspiration and spirit (In-spirit) are the same. If everything is spiritual then we can be inspired all the time.
When we connect physically, mentally and spiritually to the source, the infinite information of universe travels through us and is materialized through our creations, expressions and intentions.

neso: You are going to visit Wroclaw / Poland to share your magic art. What are your feelings about it?

Manu: I am very grateful to life and to you for the opportunity to share this magical art in your country which is a great privilege for me. I am very glad to know that I'll be creating and sharing with artists from other parts of the world. It is always very important to expand and exchange knowledge and culture with other artists.
I consider myself a cosmos' citizen, so I'm sure in Poland I will feel me at home and especially in family with all of you.

neso: Poland is quite far from Mexico. What do you know about this country and its citizens?

Manu: What I have researched is that it is a Country with a huge interest in culture and art. Art in Poland has a very significant role in the social and cultural life. I read that its inhabitants are generous and warmth with visitors and guests.
I like that Poland has several festivals. I found some of them such as the Jazz Jamboree Festival in Warsaw, the festival of street theaters in Warsaw, the international festival of folklore of the mountains, the International Book Fair, the festival Sacrum profanum and also the international festival of street art.
I know that Poland cities are full of palaces, mosques, churches, buildings and monuments, some of them with bright colors that I would like to visit. Some monuments that catch my attention is the one of Nicolas Copernicus in Olsztyn, Wroclaw Cathedral, Wawel Castle and the legend of the dragon in Krakow, the Old Town in Lublin among others.
Regarding to Wroclaw, apart from that I will have the pleasure to meet great artists in that city I am very excited to see the city of 100 bridges with its colorful buildings and magical gnomes which are everywhere.

neso: You will create few huge murals in Wroclaw and hopfeully other polish cities. Are you familiar with any other polish mural artists?

Manu: Yes, I will be painting several murals in Wroclaw and possibly at other cities in Poland. It is very nice that streets are the galleries and the walls become large canvases, since art is of everybody and for all. The awesome thing of painting on streets is that everyone is capable of amaze and transform completely their life through the contemplation of the murals inside the city.
I know a group of impressive Street Artists from Poland who are called Etam Crew (Sainer, Roem, Bezt, Pener). Their work on streets is amazing!

initial mural projects for Wroclaw:

neso: What would be your advice for young-beginning artists?

Manu: Do what you love, Become what you love.
When you do things from heart, the universe conspires to make them come true. Remember that the natural law of dreams is that everyone of them can be real and are waiting for you to make them real. Trust in your intuition, follow your heart and fly free through art and colors. The limits do not exist.

neso: What are you working on at the moment?

Manu: I am currently working on a series called "The Warrior Spirit". I have the intention of creating most of the pieces with you in Wroclaw. Some of the murals I'll be painting there also form part of this beautiful exhibition.
I want to share with you this quote from Carlos Castaneda to give you an idea of what means "The Warrior of Spirit"

"Warriors speak of shamanism as a magical, mysterious bird which has paused in its flight for a moment in order to give man hope and purpose; warriors live under the wing of that bird, which they call the bird of wisdom,the bird of freedom."

neso: You’ve said you are heading to Panama to “Tribal Gathering”. What are you going to do there?

Manu: "Tribal gathering" is a multidisciplinary festival that takes place on an island in Panama. The festival brings together 11 indigenous groups from Latin America and also invites artists with different artistic expressions from around the world to exchange and share ancestral knowledge that has connection to earth, cosmos and life. I'll be helping in the festival decoration creating murals and exhibiting my artwork at the gallery, doing live painting during the festival, and giving a workshop of Art, meditation and live music called the "Intention of believe."

Manu in Panama...

neso: Do you have any other interests besides art?

Manu: I like finding art in its infinite manifestations. I love cooking, making textiles, the long walks in natural places and in the city, practicing meditation, listening and playing music, watching movies, juggling, enjoying a delicious coffee with biscuits and a good company, I love reading, biking and I could go on endlessly. One of the things I love to do most is to find the extraordinary and magic of life in the ordinary and trivial.

neso: Is there anything you wish to say to people from Wroclaw before you get here?

Manu: There is a saying: There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
Be happy always!

See you soon!