Kris Manning is February Honeycomb Artist
Daniel Island resident Kris Manning is a busy woman. She’s a dedicated mother to two teenage boys in a household where the whole family sits down to dinner every night to share how they helped make the world just a tiny bit better that day through random acts of kindness.
A passionate drummer, Kris is also the co-owner of Black Tie Music Academy on Daniel Island where she teaches piano and drums. Kris is also co-founder of The Music Battery, a 501c3 non-profit charity that helps steer inner city kids off the streets by keeping them busy drumming. In addition, Kris is an accomplished visual artist. In the Creature Shop, her Daniel Island studio, she creates playful, whimsical pieces made of glass, cloth, paper, ink, paint and found objects among other media for a variety of gallery shows and commissioned assignments. She is also a talented puppet maker, the head of the Art Guild of Daniel Island, and co-founder of the Daniel Island Art Gallery.
Yet even with all these responsibilities, Kris Manning could feel a new project bubbling up in response to all the negativity and tension around her as the presidential campaign and subsequent election wreaked emotional havoc across the nation. Kris created #matters, a collection of colorful, high energy visual works on display this month at the Honeycomb Café on Daniel Island. Her #matters portfolio reflects the mixture of horror and despair she’s felt by watching all the crass language, intolerance, emotional abuse and insults being hurled across Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media.
But #matters also generates a message of hope. Kris is fiercely determined to spread a thick layer of optimism as a healing salve on all this anger, hatred and fear. As you walk into Honeycomb, your eyes sweep across the vibrant colors, the distinctive visual energy of each of work at once inviting you in then beckoning you to glance away; maybe you’ll choose to forget your woes in a playful swirl of color. Or look the other way, momentarily startled by the image of an eye. “What random acts of kindness are you planning on today?” the eye seems to ask, daring you to turn off your phone, break away - even for a moment - from that constant barrage of social media, take a deep breath and look inside. The brush strokes and sweeps of the works around the room lure you in and you can’t help but feel the energy emanating from the artist’s work.
Kris herself describes the goal of the works: “(They are to) remind the viewer that we are all the same; humans who are a sum of our experiences.” While seven of the 14 pieces on display reflect our seven sins - the other half reminds us that we’ve also been given tools such as tolerance, joy, grace, compassion and freedom to temper any urge to dance with the devil.
“It’s a little scary to do this - I’ve never had a large collection like this,” says the artist, pointing to her works hanging all around the restaurant. “I watch people looking at my art. They either seem to enjoy taking in everything - or they don’t like it and choose not see anything at all. I’m not insulted. That’s the purpose of art - it’s supposed to get a reaction from people. I’m trusting that the pieces will get people to start a dialogue - get people to feel something!”
“To think that I used to be a corporate sales manager outfitted in a suit every day. I’m glad I built the skillset that I needed for that kind of job. It helps me as a business owner. But that’s just one part of me. This,” she exclaims, gesturing to her works of art all about the room, “is what I really love to do!”
Manning’s collection will be on display at Honeycomb, located at 162 Seven Farms Drive - Unit 340, throughout the end of the month.