Robert blogs on art, creativity, politics, CSA, religion and culture. Many overlap into multiple categories, like motivational or random favorites. Robert is a life-long artist, writer, musician & actor, a professional creative his entire adult life. Born in 1959 in Detroit, he has lived in New York, New Orleans and currently in Charleston. His commission portraits and fine art are part of over a thousand collections throughout North America. Read his bio.
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The Power of Positive Painting Story
People thought I was crazy trying to create a system that would make drawing and painting available to anyone who applied themselves, what I call the "democritization" of art. That was the goal, to distil the processes of master realists and combine them with the...
Carolina Arts review of The Power of Positive Painting
Underbelly of Abuse
Chanel Miller, The Survivor My father didn’t want to ruin the reputation of the doctor at children’s hospital in Detroit who sexually assaulted me. Can you imagine the betrayal this young lady, Chanel Miller, Brock Tutner's victim, felt at the hands of our justice...
LSD Research
The following is a letter to his son from a loving father, in hopes it might help others who are struggling with drugs.The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dear Richard, I’ve done some research to see if any of your assertions about the positive...
My Pillow
No, not that one! When I was a child I dreamt I ate a marshmallow and awoke to find my pillow missing. Gone! I vowed to never trust another pillow so completely as I did then, when I was but a foolish ten. I grew up so unruly, knowing I should never really rest my...
Time for a Wealth Tax
The game is rigged alright. We’ve all been pitted against each other while the man gets away with the loot. When, oh when will we wake up to the biggest scam in history? It is time we had a wealth tax. We need a way to reverse the incredible income inequality that has...
The P3 Movement
Guilty, as charged! But fortunately #forgiveness awaits, with the #purchase of @ThePowerofPositivePainting. #Learn to #draw and #paint. As a frequent art competition juror in the 1990s and 2000s, I noticed roughly over 80% of the representational entrants at local art...
Antifa vs the Frogs
I am forever wondering if I'm truly far left or if I'm just an empathetic person living in a late capitalist hell-scape, where I get called a commie for saying "hey maybe poor people don't deserve to starve." For the record, Antifa just means anti fascist. There is...
Hue-based Society
We live in a hue-based society. Most artists have an unhealthy addiction to hue. Our obsession with color, specifically the hue of a color, undermines our ability to see form objectively. The Power of Positive Painting, my 157 page full color book, is an an effort to...
What People are Saying About The P3
I didn't set out to write four books. I simply had something important to say and I found a way to say it. Here's what People are Saying about my teaching and the book I could not be happier that my latest book, The Power of Positive Painting has received such glowing...
Press Release About the Power of Positive Painting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 15, 2024 Contact: Robert Maniscalco, author [email protected] mobile: 313-689-2993 The Power of Positive Painting has become a #1 Amazon Bestseller! 0 Forty years in the making, author, artist, and gallerist Robert Maniscalco...
A Dire Warning
I am sickened by these Republican senators, who will likely put their political miscalculations before country, dooming us to fascism, an escalating culture of violence, in the years to come. Why? Because they don’t want to tick off their base. But if they don’t nip...
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Maniscalco Gallery on Facebook
The figures in "A Walk in the Park" are the inner cast you carry everywhere—the fool who leaps, the doubter who drags his feet, the dreamer who stares past the horizon, the judge with crossed arms, the child who still believes. They bicker, whisper, revolt and reconcile, but together they make the one you call “I.” We are all onstage at once, caught in the thin light between meaning and emptiness—a reminder that your chaos is not a flaw, but the chorus through which your true voice finally emerges. ... See MoreSee Less
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When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted."Identity and Self"
Opening Reception and Exhibition at
Park Circle Art Gallery
4820 Jenkins Ave.
North Charleston, SC 29405
The Exhibition runs through April 26
Gallery Hours: W-F 10:30-5:30, Sat 12-4
The collection will center on how identity interferes with our true self, our true freedom, which is a central value for an artist, as well as any self-actualized individual. For instance, when I draw my idea of a thing, rather than opening myself up to the full potential contained in the thing itself, I am limiting my creative potential.
So, who are we at our core, after we strip away the names we call ourselves, the parties with whom we affiliate, the causes for which we are fighting? After all, these are all inventions of the ego, which separate us from God and the infinite. Existence consists of light on form. Light is my medium as an artist. I am a painter of the self. I am looking always for something deeper than the surface representations in my subjects. It is the true self I am looking for when I paint, whether it is an orange, a sky or a judge. ... See MoreSee Less
“The Fantasy” oil on canvas 36" x 48", invites you into that lucid dream space where imagination feels more vivid than reality. In this oil painting, a solitary figure drifts through a dreamlike landscape of softened edges and impossible light. But the story is not fixed—you’re handed a doorway.
This piece lives in the uncertainty between escape and awakening. At first glance, it feels like a beautiful dream: rich color, fluid forms, and a sense of effortless drift. But stay with it, and you begin to notice the undercurrent—a quiet question about what we run toward, and what we’re trying to leave behind.
For the thoughtful collector, “The Fantasy” becomes a mirror for their own inner world. It speaks to anyone who has ever built a private refuge in their mind: the daydreamer, the creative, the survivor, the seeker who knows that fantasies can be both sanctuary and trap. The painting doesn’t judge that impulse; it honors it, and gently asks what new possibilities might emerge when we begin to bring those inner visions into the light of our real lives.
Hung in a living room, bedroom, or reading space, “The Fantasy” doesn’t just decorate a wall—it opens a conversation. With its layered symbolism and emotional depth, it’s the kind of work people return to, again and again, discovering new details and meanings as their own story evolves. ... See MoreSee Less
"Three Little Buds" is a framed #oilpainting looking for a new home. “Three Little Buds” captures a tender moment of becoming: three rosebuds held in that brief, luminous stage before they open. The dew on their petals hints at fresh beginnings and quiet resilience after the rain. This piece speaks to anyone who feels on the edge of a new chapter—honoring both the vulnerability and the promise of what is about to bloom.
“Three Little Buds" is about beginnings and the quiet power of what hasn’t fully unfolded yet. I painted them at that in-between moment—still closed, but clearly full of life and color, with the dew clinging to them after a fresh start.
For me, the three buds might suggest three children / three important relationships / three versions of ourselves at different times, held together in the same space of light and nurtured by potential energy. The droplets are a reminder that renewal often comes right after the storm; there’s a softness and resilience there.
It’s a painting for someone who connects with the idea of growth, protection, and the beauty of what’s just about to bloom or has bloomed in their own life. ... See MoreSee Less
Here's the entire portrait. I love judicial portraits. What do you think of this portrait? Know anyone who wants a portrait legacy created? A portrait is how people know us when we're gone. ... See MoreSee Less