ECOARTSPACE / CHELENZO FARMS
June 15-18, 2026. Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. Thank you to our generous leaders Patricia Watts of ecoartspace and Lorenzo and Chelsea Dominguez of Chelenzo Farms. We learned about regenerative farming, eco art education and connective aesthetics through discussions, readings, group meals, garden tours, cheese making and goat milking. A collaborative drawing project led by myself and Texas Tech Art Education students pondered how practicing basic drawing methods such as negative space, color dripping and continuous line could deepen our connective experiences to the environment and our food sources. Special Thank you to Associate Professor of Art Education Andrés Peralta for teaming up to co-create this experience and anchor students in Eco Art, Futurism & Foodways, AgriTech, Green Humanities and Blue Humanities. This trip was generously funded by School of Art and Talkington College of Visual and Performing Arts.
-Carol Flueckiger, Professor of Art
MONDAY JUNE 15
9am Depart TTU SOA
3pm Tour Los Cerrillos, Madrid, Turquoise Trail
5pm Arrive Chelenzo Farms
6pm Dinner
7pm Welcome Introductions & Presentations
TUESDAY JUNE 16
8am Breakfast
10am Farm/Garden Tour
12pm Lunch
1pm Group Sketching
6pm Dinner
7pm Individual Meetings with Patricia Watts
WEDNESDAY JUNE 17
8am Breakfast
10am Group Sketching
12pm Lunch
2pm Animal Husbandry, Goats, Cheese
6pm Dinner
7pm Individual Meetings with Patricia Watts
THURSDAY JUNE 18
8am Breakfast & Depart for Santa Fe
12pm Georgia O’Keefe Museum
2pm Depart for Lubbock
Readings
Basia Irland: Repositories, Patricia Watts
Mapping Eco-Art Education, Hilary Inwood
Connective Aesthetics, Suzi Gablick
Trip Preparation
Bring Sketchbook
Study Readings
Be prepared to introduce yourself on the first night. Have a few sketches to show and thoughts or questions about Eco Art, food, regenerative farming and/or the readings.
Chelenzo Farms will provide meals for our group. Bring snacks and drinks you may need for between meals. We are remote, pack ahead. Bring Flashlight, raincoat, swimsuit, hiking boots. Caution. It is rattle snake season.
ecoartspace
Patricia Watts is curator and founder of ecoartspace. She will be leading three short writing sessions daily, with prompts to integrate artists’ current practice with the concepts and knowledge learned in the course from a place-based perspective. The organization ecoartspace has served as a platform for artists addressing environmental issues since 1999. In 2020, they transitioned to a membership model. Members include artists, scientists, professionals, students and advocates sharing resources and supporting each other’s work. They promote an inclusive, non-competitive collaborative environment where we can all imagine and make real a healthy, equitable, resilient future.
Chelenzo Farms
At Chelenzo Farms we have three operating pillars: research, education, and community. Our efforts focus on promoting regenerative agriculture by applying permaculture, soil health, agroecology and agroforestry principles, as well as innovative and indigenous practices to achieve our goals. Our organic research farm serves to educate the community and offer training in the areas of permaculture farming, land conservation, Indigenous agricultural and sustainability practices, and the realm of sciences that look to understand the relationship (past, current and future) that humans have with nature and the land. We also aspire to contribute to knowledge about agricultural practices and drought-resistant crop cultivation that will contribute to improve soil health in an arid environment, amidst a 23-year megadrought in the U.S. Southwest. Our unique contribution in this area includes our pioneering efforts to introduce and cultivate agave and other succulents to northern New Mexico.
TTU School of Art
Carol Flueckiger, leads Art, Environment, Sustainability programming for Texas Tech School of Art. This program offers year round field trips to support classroom learning. This course entails reading, writing, sketching and field trips that bring sustainable minded content to the imagination of the art classroom. Students study Eco-Art and Solar Punk movements while practicing drawing and mixed media techniques. Past partnerships include Ogallala Commons, Flower Power Energy Meets Art, Elsewhere Studios and Western Slope Conservation Center.
TTU Students
Mia Deleon, Art Education
Jenny Eskew, MAE
Leigh Harrison, MAE
Mikayla Haynie, MAE
Courtney Lamb, Art Education
Liz Perez, Art Education
