Lois Manno has been working in the arts for over 25 years. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree and has spent many years working as a graphic designer, professional illustrator and fine artist. Lois has illustrated over a dozen books for various publishers, and is a published author herself. After a few years of wandering various western states, she settled permanently in New Mexico, which has been her home for 20 years. There she raised her two daughters and became deeply involved in the sport of caving, working regularly as a volunteer at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Lois' interest in music has been with her since childhood. Her husband, Jack Manno, is a composer, arranger, singer, and keyboard player. As Lois began to explore jazz music by the great artists of the genre, she tried to capture the different flavors of the music through drawing and painting. She started her abstract Jazz Art Series in 2004. Several of these pieces have been exhibited in juried exhibits nationally, and are in private collections.

She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Jazz Orchestra, and is the director of the Cavern Arts Project, which is contracted with the National Park Service to install a major art exhibit at the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center in 2008.

chile-dino
Lois poses with "Chiles In The Sky With Dino", one of two dinosaurs she embellished
for the NM Museum of Natural History's "Dino Stompede" event in 2005.