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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PRESS RELEASE 4-25-19
Contact Robert for information about this and future productions of Vincent John Doe. 313-689-2993 Vincent John Doe, a new play by Charleston artist, playwright and actor, Robert Maniscalco will be presented in the final weekend of the 2019 Piccolo Spoleto Festival*...
Speed Painting
I must be a crazy artist. I enjoy painting on a time crunch. And I enjoy painting for an audience. Somehow it triggers the actor in me. And by actor, I mean one who takes action. I love the spontaneity of being in action. It challenges me to make important decisions...
Auditions for Vincent John Doe
Vincent John Doe the new Multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary play By Robert ManiscalcoWill be presented as part of the 2019 Piccolo Spoleto FestivalDirected by Barbara Pitcher____________________________________________________ Performance Dates: Thursday-Saturday,...
Barbara Pitcher
I am delighted to be working with the esteemed Barbara Pitcher on Vincent John Doe, in both the 2018 and 2019 Piccolo Spoleto productions. She has been both Director and Dramaturg, as this experimental, multi-disciplinary new play has been developed for stage. She...
Live Video Streaming
I'm very excited to have produced my first live video streaming experience to hundreds of senior centers and learning centers across the country, through The Live Living Network. The first session was focused on releasing creativity. How to turn off the critic and...
Healthcare Crisis
It’s an absurd waste of our collective wealth that we are bankrupting our people to make healthcare “accessible,” when Medicaid for all would cover everyone, at far less the cost we all are currently paying.
Life is a Story
Lifting the Veil I had an epiphany last night. I’ve been thinking about our stories, how they bind us and free us at the same time. Honestly, if we are not in the midst of a chapter or chapters of our own story, then we are asleep. All stories require conflict,...
Our Human Tribe
Only by embracing our differences, uniting around our common diversity, can we break the cycle of oppression.
The New Hope
When you’re in charge, people just want to know that you know. They don’t care if you really do know. So if you don’t know, just make it up and hope it all works out. That brand of hope sums up the relationship between our President and his supporters. But this new...
Fake is the new True
Is it too much to hope that someday we can find our way back to news being news, not fake or true, but credible or not credible?
The Evolution of a Race Awareness
Gerald Malloy Testifies As Dylan Roof Looks Away I think there is much confusion around the question of race. Without trying to rewrite the dictionary, I have arranged a simple hierarchical progression of race terminology, evolving from the primitive to the more...
The Interrupter
Good things cannot come from bad intentions. We have seen that a morally corrupt president simply cannot produce good policy and govern effectively. He has deluded himself so completely that he has caught others in the web of own deception. To many, he seemed like a...
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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