Judge Parker

The rooftop drama in NYC continues...

Fairly Odd Parents Storyboard

When swapping files off my laptop I came across these storyboards for a series of Fairly Odd Parents shorts I did for Nic a few years back featuring the Power Pals and the Crimson Chin. The CC was voiced by Jay Leno and I designed the Power Pals for one of the TV episodes I boarded on. These boards I think were for a series of shorts for their website, but I never saw the final cartoon.

Judge Parker

The rooftop drama continues in NYC...

Michael Cole Manley.com is Live

Michael Cole Manley.com is Live
My new website MICHAEL COLE MANLEY.COM is now live. This site separates my fine art from my commercial work and give that art a permanent site on the web. I had been wanting to do this for a long time and felt the ASE at school was the perfect time to finally get it rolling.

Pulp Cover Of The Year!

I just received the actual physical award for my Best Pulp Cover of the year in the mail for my cover to Robin Hood, King or Sherwood.

The 110th Annual Student Exhibition--The Big Show!

Well this was the week of the big show, what we students in our third and fourth year work towards all year, hanging our wall at the annual Student Exhibition and it was a great, fun and very tiring experience. I had a lot of great reaction to my work as well as contact with local galleries and sales. It was great to see it and experience from the inside with my friends and it was great that so many of my friends also came by to support me.






The event unfolded over two days, the first was the Preview Night where the big wigs and art collectors pay a white china price for dinner and the opportunity to come in and buy artwork before the show opens to the public. It's hosted by the Women's board of the Academy and it's a lot of fun but also a different atmosphere than the Friday opening which was open to the general public. That night I talked a lot more to people about my art and got a lot more comments, the show was also packed and well covered in the local media.






Two days of standing for hours on my feet did take it's toll though...

I also attended the Spring prize Ceremony on Friday before the Women's board lunch where I received my first place award for the Susan Macdowell Eakins painting competition.

But next week it's back into the studio and painting again, I have plans to do a lot of painting over the summer.

Judge Parker

Judge Parker

The rooftop standoff continues and so our boys night on the town is interrupted!

That's a Wrap--Spring Semester 2011

And so the third year of my undergrad in the certificate program is written into the record books. My painting are all hung on my wall for the Annual Student Exhibition or ASE and my postcards and new business card are at the printers--all the "i's" and "t's" are dotted and crossed. The last few weeks have been a real whirlwind between finishing the paintings and framing them, then getting them hung and staying up with the strip. It was like having 3 jobs at the same time, but for now it's all done and things can get cleaned up around here and I can meet and greet the buyers, patrons and the public next Thursday and Friday when the show opens.

Here I am posing in front of my wall with everything hung except the final big Super sad painting which we had to use the lift for.


Having this experience of hanging my fist ASE wall was made a lot of fun and way easier by having my friends also hanging along with me. For Joel and dave it's thier swan song at school, for Jane and myself it's our first. We all helped each other hang our walls and it was a much better and easier experience doing this than if I had done it myself. Will and dave really helped me out with my wall and it made the process fun, artists really should work more in groups, I saw many a solo artist fretting over their wall but we Dirty Palette members, Jane, Joel, Dave and Will were there to help each other out. It's funny in a way to suddenly see the work hung up in the museum, all those months of hard work condensed in a gallery space. It all seemed to fill the studio up, but it seems so much smaller in the huge cavern of the museum.


the studio needed a good cleaning after the wall was hung...




Jane and I give Joel a hand with his wall.

Here is a picture or Rachel Constantine with me and my winning painting in the Susan Macdowell Eakins painting competition, rachel was the judge for the show and you can see Alina with her second place painting below.

This is the last painting I did of the semester and its a abstract piece done for Mike Gallagher's class incorporating a few of the assignments into one. I will be straight, I am not a big fan of most abstract art. The paintings I like by Diebenkorn are the ones that look more like Edward Hopper--the later for more abstract ones really leave me cold for the most part. I am not a fan of big color field paintings or splotches of running paint. That type of work doesn't sustain me, hold me. I find most 'modern art" depressing and boring or stunts, but I tried to put that aside and do something honest in this vein.

It's much harder for me as I have nothing familiar to use a a judgement or guide. In figurative work I have many things I can see, things I know that I can use to judge and guide the work by. In abstract work like this--not so much. There are happy accidents along the process just like in figurative painting but there is more of an internal judgement as opposed to a external factor like observation of a figure or landscape to react to. Its in rustoleum on cardboard keeping with the theme so far in class this semester. The heaviness of the paint which was caked on very heavy in multiple layers cause it to actually start to slide around and I went with it. In the final crit people seemed to react to it well. I was honest and I worked on it hard but somehow I still feel this type of thing is a cheat, i just can't believe in it in the way I do as a figurative artist.

I grew the most as a painter this semester and that was the best thing-- my critics all seemed to agree here and the year is ending on a high note here, but I can't wait to get back into the studio this summer and get back to painting every day.

SPRING SEMESTER 2011 Week 14, THE END is Here.

The spring semester is basically done for me, just one more crit with my critic Celia Reisman and then I'll be submitting a bunch of work to the Spring Prizes at school and start hanging my wall for the ASE on Tuesday.

I have to say it feels great to be almost done, done. I wish I could have finished up another painting or two--but that's always the case. I feel my wall is really strong and I hope it brings me some sales and gallery offers after really pushing myself as an artist and spending the money to frame them and all the hard work this year. I really feel this was a good year for me as a painter and I can see the growth---though I turn forward and look at the Art Mountain I still have yet to climb. I had a great time with my fellow DPC buddies as well and I can't tell you how much it is vital and important to have such a great group of friends to support me at school.
the painting above of my friend Alina was the last official painting I did for my ASE wall. She was so busy herself I had to work from a photo which brings with it a whole host of problems, but it's so hard to try and get anyone to sit for a portrait this time of year when everybody is just jammed with work. I have to say that taking that portrait class at Incomminati with Kerry Dunn last winter along with help from Scott Noel and Renne Foulks helped me lick a few nagging issues. It is a great thing to try and stretch out my legs and really push for the gold and apply the lessons and thoughts I've been exposed to this year. My third year at PAFA has been my best so far.

This painting in rustoleum on cardboard is for mike Gallaghers class and base on the other painting I did for that class a few weeks back. the assignment was to make a painting based on the first, but from my memory. I did this really quickly, in only a few hours. After I was done it started to remind me of one of my favorite books from childhood, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.

Judge Parker

Looks like the Judge and Constance are not the only people on the roof...