Local
artist's multiple talents span the cultural landscape
By Bill Thompson
The Post and Courier
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Mic Smith
The Post and Courier
Robert Maniscalco poses in his studio
at his Summerville home.
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Though he is at
once artist, actor, novelist, teacher, lecturer and
multimedia entrepreneur, Summerville's Robert Maniscalco
isn't entirely comfortable with the tag "Renaissance
man," however descriptive the phrase may be.
Not that the Detroit
transplant, 47, has any problem with underscoring his
talents or promoting his work. The artist who doesn't
is the artist who fails.
This former gallery
owner, born in Detroit in 1959, has spent a life happily
being pulled in multiple directions.
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Robert Maniscalco
BORN: December 1959.
OCCUPATION: Painter, writer, teacher and multimedia
artist.
FAMILY: Wife, Amanda; son, Danny; daughter, Mary.
IN WHAT FIELD DO YOU FEEL MOST AT HOME?: Painting.
It came most naturally to me and was the "easiest"
for me to do.
HOW DO YOU FIND THE TIME TO DO ALL THIS?: Time? As
people, we have nothing but time.
WHAT DISTINGUISHES YOUR WORK?: There are different
people who are specialists in one form of expression
or another. My specialty is combining them in some way.
One place in which the arts literally combined for me
was on my TV show, "Art Beat."
DOES BEING A PORTRAIT ARTIST HAVE ITS DOWNSIDE?: I
occasionally get tired of painting men's suits.
WHAT'S PERCOLATING?: I'll be teaching a portrait painting
workshop at the Gibbes Museum of Art, February through
March.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Trying to be an artist and a stay-at-home
dad. Both require the same qualities: creativity, perseverance
and love.
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"When I was
kid, I was a musician and studied clarinet. I also painted
and was attracted to doing theater," says the son
of portrait artist Joseph Maniscalco. "I was doing
a little bit of writing, as well. I just loved to do
anything creative."
Maniscalco was drawn
to singing and acting as early as high school, when
his men's octet placed first in a state competition.
He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in music at Wayne
State University in 1983, where he was principal clarinetist
in the symphony band and orchestra. He began singing
professionally in quartets and as a soloist in area
churches.
"Music was
my first love, and I ended up putting myself through
music school by painting portraits. After graduation,
I had more portrait gigs than music gigs."
In 1984, performing
at the Grosse Pointe Theatre, he won awards for playing
Mozart in "Amadeus" and for roles in "City
of Angels" and "Rainmaker." He also directed
the theater's productions of "Jesus Christ Superstar"
and "Smokey Joe's Cafe."
New York beckoned
two years later. Maniscalco sang in a cabaret quartet
while studying acting at the Circle in the Square Theatre.
Over the course of eight years in Gotham, he continued
acting and premiered several original vocal compositions
with the New Renaissance Chamber Artists, performing
at Carnegie Hall in 1991. His years in New York culminated
in a one-person exhibition at the Limner Gallery in
1992.
Later, during a
three-year (1995-97) residency in New Orleans, he focused
on his commissioned portrait career, yet still found
time to sing with an early music ensemble, Musica da
Camera, and with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
Chorus.
The artist ventured
home to Michigan again in 1997, soon founding the Maniscalco
Gallery.
Not content to confine
himself to his studio, Maniscalco hosted "Art Beat,"
a PBS series on Detroit Public Television through which
he examined the creative process with celebrated guests.
But within a month of closing the Maniscalco Gallery
in Grosse Pointe in 2005, Maniscalco, his artist wife,
Amanda, and their kids, Danny and Mary, moved into new
Summerville digs, in part to be closer to her mother,
who had settled in South Carolina 10 years earlier.
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"We visited her often
and simply fell in love with the area," Maniscalco said.
When Maniscalco was a
youngster, his dad occasionally would permit him to "skumble"
in the large background areas of the father's canvases, but
it was years later that the son actually apprenticed with
him. The senior Maniscalco knew potential when he saw it;
his son sold his first painting, a copy of Jacques-Louis David's
"Napoleon" on horseback, when he was 7 — for
$3.
He fares a bit better
today. Since 1980, Maniscalco's commissioned portraits and
fine art have become part of more than 850 private and public
collections in North America. Painting came naturally to Maniscalco.
Establishing independence took greater effort.
"Because I was following
in the footsteps of my father, I really wanted to assert my
own voice. I didn't want to live in his shadow. I kind of
resented the portrait painting I was asked to do after music
school. But I always came back to it; it's become my central
love after developing in other ways. It was almost like I
was born into a profession. Try as you may, you're destined
to pursue it. But my father was ambivalent; he didn't encourage
or discourage me. I don't think he really wanted me to go
through what he went through. It's not an easy road, even
when it's paved a little bit for you."
In recent years, Maniscalco
has devised "The Power of Positive Painting," a
multimedia performance-art presentation that explores the
process of being a professional artist with a live audience;
created "The Portrait," an instructional DVD; published
his first novel, "The Fishfly"; and released "Point
of Art," a book sharing his path "toward personal
growth and creative self-expression."
Of late, he also has started
work on a series of paintings depicting the Lowcountry landscape.
Maniscalco returns to
Detroit several times a month to work on portrait commissions.
"For some reason,
when you leave a place, you suddenly become in greater demand.
I've had my best year ever, and most of that is coming from
Detroit."
Maniscalco remains an
advocate for the arts, having raised an estimated $250,000
through donations of his work to fundraisers and silent auctions
to benefit medical research, education and the drive to fight
homelessness. As someone keen to contribute to the cultural
conversation, it comes with the territory.
Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com
or 843 937-5707
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