For Crayon Out Loud
Brian Connors Manke

Artist Statement: I’ve always thought it peculiar that we should somehow outgrow using crayons. If it's the first artistic tool that we are handed to scribble with as a child, it feels like we should hold it with higher regard. “Here, young being, welcome to the world of imagination and possibilities—go forth and create!” Yet, a few years later, we just throw ‘em all in a heaping pile to discard? I say no! When I made weird holiday and birthday cards for my friends and family in my 20s, I did so with a box of crayons at my side. Those cards featured my crude and basic drawings because that was (is) my drawing skill level. But for me, there was also a level of comfort and familiarity when I had crayon in hand. Since I’ve always had boxes of crayons in my life, one day nearly 20 years ago, I thought, “What else can I do with them?” That started my journey of melting and manipulating those childhood favorites into my modern artistic visions.

A few years ago, I stumbled into creating my first “Zing, It’s Spring” piece. As a boy, spring was definitely my least favorite season; I had catastrophic seasonal allergies which would often render me useless. But my allergies somehow weakened after moving to Kentucky over 20 years ago (a puzzling paradox, for certain), and now spring may very well be my favorite time of year. Once an almost mortal enemy to my senses, I’ve spent a lot more time slowly studying and sitting with flowers. That evolution snuck up on me, but perhaps it was responsible for finding myself creating these pieces, and discovering that the flowers were whispering sweet nothings in my ear. Most of my work is very abstract, and a subject like flowers, which are usually represented with great and careful detail in art, seemed like an odd pairing for someone who is laughably bad at drawing realistically. But, perhaps that’s the power of the flower! No matter how we come in contact with them, strong emotions follow. Flowers make us feel something primitive—whether they are rendered by a master painter, or as the blobs of color you see before you. They are such a universal symbol that they might be THE universal symbol—no matter what they are representing (love, grief, new beginnings, celebration).  Some of my works in this show are tied to that continuing series.

About the Artist: Brian Connors Manke is an amateur at most everything he enjoys (art, photography, music) and he enjoys the element of the unknown that comes along with not being an expert. He graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and has worked in the sports and media industries for the last 30 years. 

He has lived in Lexington, Kentucky since 2003, and is humbled at the amount of good fortune that he and his family have found in the Bluegrass. Although, much of his aesthetic and brain wiring is courtesy of his underdog of a hometown - Cleveland, Ohio.