who i am
Mike McManus - Biographies
-[speed through]
Born and blazed in The Bronx,
HipHop from the start,
Collage and penned art,
Poetry from the heart,
Freestyle in a barrage,
Sculpt steel plus work hard,
Express through played parts,
All praise is due to God.
-[stay a minute]
I was Born and raised in The Bronx, New York to a working class family in an Italian neighborhood. My early influences were cartoons, comic books, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, Georgia O’Keeffe, Shell Silverstein, and the giant whale at the Museum of Natural History. As a school aged child I was drawing, collaging and writing short stories, books, and poetry. Later as I was more influenced by Hip-Hop, sports, and fashion I started tagging up graffiti, rapping, and drawing logos, symbols, and designs. Then as books, movies, and theater entranced my mind I became engulfed in dramatic writing. This lead to a scholarship to Drexel University in Philadelphia, where I also studied art history, design, and acting. I was highly influenced by abstract expressionism, surrealism, and assemblage artists. DeKooning, Rothko, Kandinsky, Gottlieb, Dali, David Smith, Serra, and Rauscenburg, to name a few, introduced me to means of expression beyond the vernacular. At the same time I discovered a talent for acting which caused me to move back to NYC and study Theater at Hunter College. By this time I had a bevy of life experiences, tragedies, and accomplishments, to extract from and a toolbox of artistic outlets to channel them through. I began deconstructing the graffiti letters I had so long scribed, and letting my hand flow free with the forms, creating organic shapes all my own. I learned the collaborative creative process taking part in various multi-media stage productions, and fell in love with live theater and its immediate gratification. Dropping out of college to go to work, I continued to audition for movies and plays, getting small roles, and was heavily experimenting with paint and collage, drugs and the club scene, death and spirituality. Eventually I followed my father and brother into the construction trade of steamfitting with Local 638. Little did I know the materials used to install heating and cooling systems and the means by which they were manipulated would become my main means of creating. When I learned welding and burning/cutting steel I immediately applied it to the art I was producing. Soon I had my organic shapes, dripping clouds, lettering, logos, graffiti and doodled characters from the margins, alive in steel. A mash up of Revs, Miro, Arp and Harring. At the same time artist friends close to me were creating exceptional pieces of art that needed to be exhibited, so I started curating art shows. I dove into putting on shows and curated/exhibited in, nearly 20 events in the past two years. Steel has become my main means of visual expression along with my first love, collage, and a new passion for drawing. Still rapping, acting, working hard, living in East Harlem, while riding this wave of NYC art, music and culture, with the weird wonderful people whose vibe I cling to, as we keep on, keep keeping on.
Artist Statement
Much is going on inside of me. It needs to be released. Whether expelling an anxiety, bringing awareness to a cause or belief, views of life structure and society, working out an emotion or addiction, praising, screaming, praying, vomiting, venerating, exploring my heritage, inner struggles of spirit vs. flesh, representing where I’m from, exploiting a point of passion, or satisfying my own desires, art is my way. I use steel burning and welding, collage, drawing, paint, rap/lyricism, dance, acting, writing poetry, scripts, and short stories, sculpture, typography, curating/hanging art, ranting, photography, and pointing at things and telling you it is art, as forms of release.
