Mike Manley's Blog
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Free, Free, Free
Free, Free, Free
It's all come down to this, Free Comic Book day and being Free from the semester and a lot of emotional stuff from PAFA this weekend. I always enjoy participating in the annual FCBD down at Captain Blue Hen, run by Joe Murry, one of the best retailers in the business. i enjoy drawing sketches especially for the kids, as there is real appreciation by most of them and drawing seems magical. I enjoy the older fans as well and the last few years it's also been fun to hang with many of my fellow cartoonist before and after the show. It takes comics back to what i think they have mostly lost, a sense of fun.
Yesterday was my last day at PAFA, the last Crit in Jill Rupinski's Still Life class in the morning was it. it went well, we had a good crit and then i was OUT! Lunch with a few fellow students on the 11th floor , a little book and magazine browisng at Borders. A lot has been happening on a personal level this semester, so it's good to let go of the place for a while and to do some ME stuff this summer. I will be teaching a CE class on drawing for comics and animation there starting in July.
I did First Fridays with my student, Vera, from Uarts yesterday, and we had a fun time and made some connections with a few fellow animations types at a gallery show...so the day was topped off with some great Vietnamese poh and Spring rolls at my fave resturant , Little Saigon. -
Sememsters ending
Current mood:
The semesters almost done, a few crits this week and next and then I get a nice break, i can just think about ME for a while, which I can really use. This has been one fucking up and down year! Like a roller coaster full of broken glass! I was pretty god dam raw and mad for a while and the plates were all spinning at maximum.
busy
But i found out who loved me and who didn't, who my friends really are and how great they can be when the jagged edge cuts deep. I had great new experiences teaching and i think focusing on that was a real boost and work continues to help recoup the bank account, no thanks to the fucking economy.
This year has certainly been completely different in a lot of ways than I ever expected, but as the Buddists say, life is suffering, so i hope with the amount of suffering chalked up, now it will be a little responsive universe to spin some good karma my way. -
OUT INTO THE FUTURE Goodbeye 07 Hello 08!
Current mood:
As i take some time here at the end of this busy year to sort of clean house, straigten up the studio, rifle through the little piles of debri from the busy life of being an artist walking in two worlds ( school and commercial) I have spent some time reflecting back on the year of 2007.
quixotic
What a mix, great personal success and personal sadness mixed. I lost two great friends this year, my buddy Mike Wieringo, or just Ringo to his friends, and my dog, my 11 1/2 year old Austrailan healer, Buster. Both were sudden and shocking. Both seemed the picture of health and both died of apparently sudden heart attacks.
When you are young everything seems forever. Sure, your grandpaprents might pass, but you sort of know that as they are old, but being in my 40's now i realize that this type of thing will happen more often. The mind tries in vain to make logic of this type of thing, but there is no logic but the flow of life. Birth and death, summer and winter. My life was certainly enruiched by knowing Mike and being friends, not only artistically but on a personal basis beypond the few jobs we did. We had many great phone conversations over the years and always enjoyed seeing each other in teh flesh when we could at the busy conventions. I never saw him enough but cheerish the times we did get to hang out.
Buster was one of those great dogs, great from the first day, a real pleasent soul and full of energy and happiness. Never moody and quick to forgive or forget when scolded for doing things like eating chicken bones out of the garbage. He could run like a champ and catch a frisbee too, a natural, i never had to train him for that. He could out run any dog in the park and always had that doggie smile. he never acted old, though he did slow down at 9 or 10 a tad and was really such a funny creature of habit. He had a schedule and stuck to it. he'd wake me up, let me know when it was time for dinner, or treats or for the walk.
On the school front i couldn't be any happier unless i was full-time, i entered PAFA and feel i really grew, i really pushed myself harder than i ever have artistically and feel i the ressult with new art muscels. Echo was very supportive and encouraging when i'd have my doubts. i always trust her judgement about these things. I get so stirred up and am such a perfectionist, she is too, but she gave me a few needed boosts. the teachers were great, especially Scott Noel. I feel being a student has even made me a better teacher and that's good because 2008 will have me teaching in three schools, DCAD, Uarts and the Ney York Academy of Art.
2008 will be busy and i feel a big transitional year. I plan on entering more competitions, getting my Draw! mag stuff more of a priority so i can be a lot more independent of doing commercial work. i want to transition into more fine art and more of my own projects and less on work for the big companies, but of course $$$$ is always an issue in making this possible. We have a lot of hard choices here, myself, but also America, hell, the world. dark shit, bad shit, undeniable shit and teh choices will require thought and sacrifices, a word most modern people, at least here in the states hate to hear and hate to choose, but better to choose than be pushed.
So i take the good and the sad of 2007 and roll with it into 2008 and feel it should be an even better year. -
Schools Out!
Current mood:
Schools out at DCAD, and my final grades are turned in...fates are sealed! :-)
relieved
I have to say it was a mixed year for me as a teacher, some good students and some really weak students, moreso than any year I've taught yet. Art is what you put into it.
But for the hard working students I wish the best and hope they find success in art, which is a very hard and challenging career as the fields of fine art and illustration are really changing as the new media seems to be redefining day-by-day what we call art and how we relate to it in this U-tube era.
For me, I'm off to China in 2 weeks.