Well-known for his depiction of sporting events and celebrities, Neiman created Lobo Layup at Tamarind Institute after attending the 2008 men’s basketball game against UNLV. Here, he works with Master Printer, Bill Lagatutta in Tamarind's workshop.

When Tamarind Director Marge Devon called LeRoy Neiman in 2008, already in his mid 80s, to invite him to Tamarind to try his hand at lithography, he immediately accepted saying, “Great! It’s a perfect time to learn something new.” A couple months later, Neiman attended the 2008 UNM men’s basketball victory over UNLV with Marge Devon and Dr. David Schmidley, UNM’s President, where he sketched one of UNM’s star players, J.R. Giddens.

After the game, the work of transforming the sketches into a lithograph began. LeRoy is best known for his paintings and serigraphs which are very colorful and complex. Color lithography is a whole different process, and at times it was frustrating for LeRoy to limit himself to fewer colors than the serigraph allows. But, he was eager to understand lithography and explore the techniques that it has to offer. Once the plates and stone were drawn, we began to try different color possibilities. LeRoy enjoyed the color proofing and seeing the color combinations he thought would work. After 10 days, the enthusiasm and experimentation paid off and LeRoy was very happy with the color combination achieved in Lobo Layup.