About her name...Rogene Manas...Rogene's last name is Mañas, her father was Spanish, and her mother was Italian. The family dropped the tilde when they came to the US in the early 1900's. She uses the original spelling on anything to do with her artwork to honor her heritage, but does not use it in the rest of her life. So she signs her work as Mañas, but when looking for her on the web, it's Manas.
About Rogene Mañas
Rogene is a mixed media artist living in Eugene, Oregon. After years of being a graphic designer/illustrator, owning her own international card company and painting landscapes on the side, she made an abrupt change while spending winters in Mexico. After becoming enamored with the colorful, primitive and allegorical nature of folk art, she began making art from her inside world, rather than from the outside world. It quickly became a happy obsession and now she spends her days creating work from her own thoughts, feelings, emotions and personal stories.
She has developed and invented her own ways of making art using mixed media materials and assemblage techniques. She incorporates an air-dried clay called "paper clay" to make textural paintings and bas-relief artwork. She uses acrylic paints, mediums, and collage materials in finishing her pieces. She works on canvases and panels, but also creates three dimensional works when the mood strikes.
Rogene studied art in many ways over many years. As a student of fine arts at the University of Oregon, she left school to work as an illustrator at advertising agencies and design firms. Over the years, she used professional workshops to develop her skills in several disciplines including computer design and illustration; oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, and gouache painting; collage and assemblage work; ceramics, jewelry and printmaking. She loves the freedom of combining materials and methods under the umbrella of mixed media rather than conforming to any one discipline.
Rogene's work is in collections across the United States, Canada and Mexico and can be seen on this site. She is not presently represented by any galleries but does show work at Maude Kerns Art Center in Eugene from time to time.
WORKSHOPS
As a teacher, Rogene loves to spark creativity in others. She likes to help students find a comfortable medium so they can grow and better develop their art skills without struggling. Many of her mixed media methods are inexpensive, flexible and forgiving which enables her students to relax in the process and experience success with their work.
Rogene teaches art workshops and shares her unique and inventive techniques in Oregon and California. She is also teaches at special art tours into Mexico. See the workshop listing on this website for her current offerings, or send a note on the contact page.
GET HER BOOK
Rogene has written a book about her unique paper clay process for North Light Books, which was just released and went to #1 in its category! Available on Amazon where you can see pages, read reviews and order one: Artful Paper Clay
VIDEO ABOUT ROGENE
In 2011, Oregon Public Broadcasting did a story about Rogene and her work. See that segment at the beginning of this show:
http://www.opb.org/television/programs/artbeat/episodes/1212/
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST AND TAKING TIME TO READ THIS!