Manuel Pulido has always had a penchant for artistry, but he wanted it to mean something and integrate into his approach to the land and as a Native American. He needed his art to reflect the meanings of life with stewardship, cultural identity, and the importance of nature. His connection that bore his inspiration for art came from the bike rides he used to take around his original hometown of Fort Worth, Texas.
Pulido grew up in Texas but felt himself drawn to Colorado and specifically Manitou Springs to both bring healing with his murals and art installations and also find his own peace in concert with his love of mountain biking.
“I grew up in an area of Fort Worth that was very poor. So as far as opportunities for artwork, for art, for mountain biking, it was not something feasible because we couldn’t afford mountain bikes. We couldn’t afford art supplies, he says.
In high school in Texas in the mid-‘80s, Pulido had his first opportunity to purchase a bike. Growing up in Texas, he says the trails he rode there didn’t compare to the beauty in Colorado. He explains though that several bikers that were on the trails in Texas were photographers, painters, writers, and poets, just involved in all facets of the arts.
“That community started growing for me with like-minded people. Mind you, all this time, I was painting murals for free wherever I could. Somebody had a wall. I would paint a mural. But I never got into graffiti. That was never a part of my world.”
Connecting to Nature Encourages Manuel Pulido’s Focus
Being out on the trails in Texas, Pulido explains, brought him to nature. “It brought me to the love of nature and the connection of nature. And being that I am of Native American descent – half-Native American, half-Mexican – I found that it grounded me. And it felt comfortable like I was supposed to be there.”
Nature, he says, became his church. His bike was the tool he used to get there. “And my painting was my prayers. It was my medicine, my healing. And so any chance I got to introduce other people to mountain biking through my art, I did. It was more about sharing my medicine with other people.”
His “medicine” (mountain biking) and art led him to his wife, Natalia, who was a kindred spirit with the same love. They met at various art shows and galleries in the Fort Worth area. “And then eventually, I found myself spending more and more time with her. We were able to connect our medicines, which were art and mountain biking, and start to discover the world a little bit.” Fort Worth was too concrete, Pulido explains. It worked as the opposite of a magnet and pushed him northward.
“The first time I came to Manitou Springs, the [big] mountain was a big part of it. I was driving on the 25 heading north to see the Northern Lights. I never got to see them, but I remember seeing Tava off the freeway. And for some reason, I thought about it the whole time. That particular mountain by itself separated from the rest of the Rockies and just left an impression in my mind. When I came back, that’s how I found Manitou.”
Pulido felt he was missing something in Texas, so he brought my wife to come to see Manitou as well. “It was like getting a big hug from your mother or your grandmother that you haven’t seen in a long time and feeling super comfortable. My wife and I both decided this is where we wanted to be.”
That said, they had to work for two years before they moved. They narrowly missed the fires and the mudslides around 2012. Pulido says, though, they were meant to be here.
Bringing Culture and Point of View to Manitou Springs
Pulido wanted to bring their feeling of art to Manitou Springs. “We were looking for a place to paint a mural to tell a little bit of the [local] story.”
He thought there was nothing representing their culture there. He eventually was able to paint a mural above what is now formerly the Manitou Lofts that told a creator story. Pulido explains that the idea was, “He blew into the waters and caused it to become carbonated. The native people would offer beets to the waters and drink the waters to heal themselves. This would not only heal their bodies but also heal their souls and their minds.”
He and his wife loved this story. “And as we were painting the mural, we had a golden eagle come and visit us, so we painted him in.” The eagle was hunting the pigeons that were living up there, Pulido says. It took four to five months to paint this mural, but it was completed in 2013, their first year in the Springs.
Pulido says he also decided to paint a buffalo that’s hidden within that same mural. The key for the loft mural, and many since, is that he used actual earth from sacred sites and embedded them in the art through the materials.
“It evolved from that mural. That was the first time I did that. We needed to make sure that our artwork always represents our diversity and also represents our story and also has healing for people. So, from then on, every sculpture I worked on, every painting I worked on, including the mural at Torie’s at Buffalo Lodge, has earth from sacred sites.”
Pulido explains how the mural at the Buffalo Lodge came to be. Giffin purchased the lodge in 2016 after Pulido and his wife were already living in the area. “We didn’t know what they were going to do with the place. But I would see this old mural that was on the [entrance] wall, which I thought was poorly represented. They had teepees. It was just really bad and not worth saving.”
Pulido walked in and talked to Giffin. “I asked her about the mural. And she pretty much said that it wasn’t something in the budget but that she’d like to keep my number.”
Pulido says he was persistent and made some designs from drawings to give to her. Eventually, he said, “You know what? Don’t even worry about the money for it. All you gotta do is have that wall repaired and then we’ll paint the mural.” He took it a step further when he found out that her business brought together the two things that he loved: mountain biking and art. He then reached out to local bike manufacturer SRAM and got them to repair the wall so they could begin painting. Pulido and Natalia were able to finish the mural and now it is a prominent part of the Lodge’s identity.
Bridging Gaps in Community Through Art
Pulido and his wife are trying to bridge those gaps between native and diverse communities. For the Buffalo Lodge mural, they made sure to have a medicine man come out and bless the entire mural as they were painting it. The medicine man was also able to bless Giffin’s young son who has been battling brain cancer. “We wanted to have our hearts in the right place when we’re working on it.”
He says that kind of energy keeps pushing him forward as a person and an artist. “It’s a wave. You ride that wave. And I found that that wave doesn’t really deter you, it just keeps pushing you forward.”
Pulido says that the path as an artist can be scary at first but he realizes that it never fails you. He explains that even if bills are coming in, “You have to trust the wave. And it gets you there. I’ve been here 10 years now, and it has never failed me. It just allows me opportunities to meet people. And then that opportunity opens up another one. It’s just constant. The biggest thing is to trust that and to trust yourself that you can accomplish those things. And if you have to do that side job to be able to get going on where you need to be, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
