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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Art and Wine
Painting Drunk Cate and I recently went incognito to a bottle and brush event to research how the "pros" get "cons" like us to produce really crappy art while drunk. This was part of our research into our presenting really cool painting parties of our own. It was a...
Charleston ARTBEAT Coming Soon
South Carolina ART BEAT Is Coming to ETV in 2016! ARTBEAT ran for two seasons on WTVS-PBS in Detroit from 2003-2005 and was a forerunner to the fast paced guerrilla style, personality driven TV experiences now common on the Food Channel and others. ARTBEAT is shot...
The Sisters Rosensweig
The Sisters Rosensweig Reveals the Clown "I still believe there can be happiness in life. Brief, but a moment or two." As is always the case, it seems, whenever I take on a new role I find there is something of a life lesson to be learned. Both the character I play...
Arts in the Schools – A Secret Plot to Connect the Arts to Academic Success
A Secret Plot, Using the Arts to Bring Test Scores Up. As artist in residence in North Charleston I taught kids and their teachers how to draw. It was a simple mission. People who believed that they were not talented achieved success and there were a lot of...
50 Reasons Why Your Kid (YOU!) Should Learn to Draw and Paint
50 Reasons Why YOU Should (and still can) Learn to Draw and Paint My big message in school presentations (and wherever someone is listening) has always been: visual literacy is possible and available to everyone, no talent or golden ticket required. And yet, today's...
Painting with ADHD
"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." — Thomas Edison Embracing Your "Limitations" Some of the best artists I know live in a world of chaos called ADHD. They love to play in the mud of ambiguity. I'm not sure if it's because ADHD is more...
Awakening Marsh Demo
Awakening Marsh - Demonstration Sometimes a demo is just what the students (and teacher) needs to get the juices flowing. Awakening Marsh was a demo for students from a photo I've been eying for a while. I don't often take on sun rises but I wanted to just...
Crying in the Face of Beauty
Why Do We Cry? "We cry only in the face of beauty." Alan Langdon, legendary acting coach I'm not sure where Alan got this quote but it has always stuck with me, not only in my career as an actor but also in my career as a human. There is a lot of insight packed into...
Brush with Wine Events
Brush with Wine As an experiment to find out what's up with all those Wine and paint party venues popping up all over the place I asked myself, what if we tweaked this party-paint-along concept to make it more meaningful and not just a drunken brew-ha-ha? I like the...
50 Reasons Why Playing Music Is Good For Your Kids
50 Reasons Why Playing Music Is Good For Your Kids My son Danny asked me for three good reasons why he should continue playing violin. I gave him 52. Teaches discipline. Teaches us how to be free within specific structures. Teaches problem-solving. Breaking down a...
Mary Draws How She Wants to be Like Our President
"Mary when she grows up" I want to be like our President Mary wants to be a hero when she grows up; she wants to be like the President, and do everything she can to stop the bad guys from hurting innocent children, like President Obama wants to do in Syria. We...
50th Anniversary of the March on Washington 2013
March on Washington 2013 "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Dr. Martin Luther King In response to this famous MLK quote, a friend...
Maniscalco Gallery on Facebook
"Tempus Fugit" captures the instant fire and ice meet, when strange entities are released into the human psyche. Another collaboration between myself and artist Nick C. Cerrato. ...
"Light" captures the moment of decision. To enlighten or to inflame? ...
"Darkness and Light" is my latest collaboration with Nick C. Cerrato. It can be appreciated simply as an #abstract expressionist #painting and closer up as a deep narrative meditation on darkness and #light. ...
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The grand arbiter of taste, who definitely would not recognize a Van Gogh if it hit them in the face. With apologies, of course, to all those who've awarded me over the years, and to those who haven't. This is one more reason I detest authority. When I've played the role of juror, I always feel it necessary to write about each of the works, something kind and something to work on. I see the role of juror is not to judge, but uplift and encourage people who've put their heart and soul on the line. I usually pick the piece most reasonable people would agree was award worthy. And I can tell you why. I think contests should exist to support deep study and commitment to the purpose of art, which is to open our eyes to something heretofore unseen. It is the juror's job to really see the artists' work, in such a way that each artist will know they have been seen. ...
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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.Evil's Place, another collaboration with Nick Cerrato. I know you can't zoom in on insta so I will tell you God is pressing the devil into his place, while multiple figures reacts to the battle of good vs evil. NFS ...