Amor evermore
Apr. 14—Visitors to downtown Las Cruces likely have seen Anahy Nuñez's art, even if they don't realize it.
The Color Me Cruces mural at 318 N. Main St. was created by Nuñez, Aaron Valenzuela, and Christina Ballew. That 16-by-20-foot installation features the words "Greetings from Downtown Las Cruces, New Mexico" as well as regional icons such as New Mexico State University mascot Pistol Pete, the Rio Grande Theatre, and Saint Genevieve Catholic Church.
This month it was joined by Con Amor, an 860-square-foot mural on a Las Cruces Visitors Center wall downtown, facing Main Street. Nuñez's postage stamp motif was chosen from among 65 designs submitted by artists nationwide, according to Visit Las Cruces. A ribbon-cutting for the installation was Thursday, April 13, culminating about a month of installation work.
Con Amor — or With Love — is meant to colorfully represent the region and attract selfie-seekers, according to Visit Las Cruces. It features Mesilla Valley scenery including the Organ Mountains, the windmill at Baylor Canyon Road, and cacti.
"I was aware that they wanted people to come take pictures in front of it," Nuñez says. "I did a lot of research and found posters that they made back in the '50s to promote tourism. The posters were just so striking — very graphic, using six colors or less."
She opted for a stamp design in part to differentiate the mural from Color Me Cruces. Seeing people react to that mural fills Nuñez with pride.
"Every time we pass by it, there's somebody taking pictures in front of it, and it's just so fun," she says. "I saw this girl with a French horn the other day taking her senior pictures there."
Nuñez and Valenzuela, her fiancé, co-own the downtown businesses Atom Bomb Studio and La Tiendita — the former a tattoo shop, the latter a gift shop. They travel often as part of their tattoo business, Nuñez says, which only bolsters her appreciation for her home city.
"The landscape, the weather, the community, the people, the activities ... I wanted to present a feeling to people because I just have so much love for this place," she says of Con Amor. "If it weren't for the support that I had constantly through my gallery shows, through our events, I don't know that I would be at this level as an artist." 336 S. Main St., Las Cruces, lascrucescvb.org
