Mana Lesman became so perturbed by the trends she saw during her studies in the 1960s
                     at the Denver University School of Art that she quit painting for 10 years. 
                     “I never wanted to hear people say, ‘my dog’ or ‘my kid could do that,’” Lesman said. “The
                     public has moved away from art; they don’t respond to the very abstract,
                     haphazard-looking, throw-paint-on-the-canvas style. They don’t understand it.” 
                     The abstract expressionism of the time was so pervasive in the Denver art school that she
                     felt she didn’t belong there. 
                     “’We don’t paint trees here,’ I was told by a faculty member,” she said. 
                     While she wanted her paintings to show the freedom of abstract work, she believed that
                     portraits and landscapes were very valid forms that could also present messages. Keeping
                     this philosophy to herself, she told instructors that the level of turpentine and paint fumes
                     during the day was too strong for her. Granted permission to avoid classes, she began
                     painting at night. After procrastinating awhile, she finished several paintings in one night,
                     which teachers praised for the development of her work. 
                     “I’m not developing anything, I told them; I did this last night,” she said. “If I could do that,
                     I was in the wrong place.” 
                     Lesman, 60, has painted for years now, in more than one style. Her latest body of work, on
                     display at Gaia’s Galleria and Tea House for the June 1 Art Walk and at the Staggering Ox, is
                     strong on color and long on symbolism. 
                     “What appeals to me about her work is the layers of meaning,” said Sh’Tarra, co-owner of
                     Gaia’s. 
                     Combining abstract symbolism with recognizable images, Lesman has drawn much of her
                     inspiration from original forms of our alphabet, hieroglyphics and other symbols of ancient
                     cultures. She calls her work “graphic surrealism.” Of particular interest are pieces featuring
                     the periodic table of the elements, the alphabet, and a trio called “Three Phases of the
                     Goddess,” depicting a woman in three stages of life, represented by the aging process and
                     the phase of the moon shown behind her. 
                     “I want the first impact to be ‘wow!’ not ‘huh?’” Lesman said. 
                     After leaving Denver, Lesman traveled, attended architectural school, and married. She
                     then studied production design at Kansas City Art Institute, and took a job in Chicago for a
                     small consignment firm. In 1973, two years after her daughter was born, she returned to
                     painting, using scenes of neighborhoods as her primary subject matter. 
                     “The seeds of graphic surrealism came when I was experimenting with tempera,” said the
                     Billings native, who returned to Montana in 1985. “I was toying with abstract shapes I could
                     twist and contort.” 
                     Part of Lesman’s inspiration was the graffiti art she saw in Chicago, “but I just don’t paint
                     on trains or schoolyards,” she said. 
                     Starting with old symbols and pictograms, and seeing these as “ancient graffiti,” she said,
                     she called the work in her first exhibit “hiero-graffiti.” 
                     “It came together in bits and pieces,” she said. “I read National Geographic a lot while my
                     father was ill, and began reading about Middle Eastern cultures and archaeology. There are
                     a lot of decorative motifs in architecture and jewelry, many of which have meaning. I think
                     they speak to something elemental in us – some go back 30,000 years in caves in Europe.” 
                     Lesman began teaching, painting and exhibiting in Billings in 1985, after the house she
                     designed was finished. 
                     “I teach a lot now,” Lesman said. “There comes a time when you have to share what you
                     know.”