An interview with visual artist Michael Manning on piecing together modern identity through found imagery, asking good questions to find answers, and building collections of colours and textures through magazines and discarded materials.
In this interview, I chat with Michael Manning, a collage artist from Boston, Massachusetts, also known as Westwood. Michael has been doing collage art since he was about 14 years old and took it professional right out of college in 2013. His creative work focuses on piecing together elements of modern-day identity, exploring the things that people collect and finding serendipity in those moments – always focused on cooperation, collage, collections, and fascinated with words. Michael’s creative process is built around asking questions – he believes it’s all about collection and asking good questions, trusting that if you ask the right questions, you’ll very naturally find the answers.
He loves questions and diversity in his work. His specific process involves finding an image first, often getting a commission to recreate a photograph, which he projects onto a canvas and then works almost like a paint-by-numbers approach. He rifles through magazines and materials that people discard, looking for pieces of paper and colours – going through systematically to find specific colours like blues or greens, then skin tones, building up his palette. He describes finding the colours he needs and then trying to find corresponding textures and contexts that match, creating collections of imagery that he can draw from for his collage work. His process combines traditional artistic techniques with found materials, creating new compositions that explore modern identity through collected fragments.
Michael Manning, Visual Artist
Introduction
MM: My name is Michael Manning. I am a collage artist from Boston, Massachusetts, aka Westwood. I’ve been doing collage art since I was about 14 years old, and then I took it professional, I would say, right out of college in 2013.
MD: Tell me, what is your creative discipline? What do you do creatively?
MM: I try to piece together elements of modern-day identity by focusing on the things that people collect. For some reason, like just the little sound of like co, I’m always focused on cooperation, collage, collections. I find a lot of serendipity in those moments, and I’m fascinated by those terms and those words.
Creative Process
MD: Can you tell me a bit about your creative process?
MM: Yeah, it’s a lot of collection, it’s a lot of questions. I’m always looking for good questions. I do believe that if you ask the right questions, you’ll very naturally find the answers. I love questions. I love diversity. And my process is more specifically, I will usually find an image. I’ll get a commission to find a, to recreate a photograph, usually. It’s usually a photograph. And I used to project it onto a canvas, and then almost do a paint by numbers thing so I know what colours to find. And then I’ll rifle through magazines or things that people, pieces of paper people will give to me. And I’ll find the colours. I’ll go blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. And I’ll try to find the colour blue. And then I’ll try to find green skin tones. And then context. I’ll try to find the context to the story. And then I’ll glue with just glue sticks onto the canvas. And it’ll take you, like the last decade of work has taken me about, each one has taken me about three months of like working on multiple collages at once. And I’ll put together something that ideally looks like a painting at first. But when you get closer, my work really lives in person where people go, Oh my God, that’s a million pieces of paper. And that’s what I do.
That’s my process.
MD: I’m curious. Do you have, like at home, in your home studio, or wherever it is that you create at home, do you have like boxes and boxes of different coloured bits of paper on card?
MM: Yeah, I cursed myself with, that’s the thing is like, why collage? Why collage? Why did it have to be it? But I was, I was thinking about this sentence recently, you know, or this question. One of my favourite questions is how do you define a rich life besides money? And I collect magazines. I like to find the little stories. And I feel like those things get hidden and they’re not appreciated as much to me as books. And so I love magazines and people give me them, old ones, new ones. Yeah.
MD: I love that. I’m just imagining all those boxes.
MM: Yeah. Like if you could have a million of one thing besides money, what would it be? For me, it would be magazines and probably t-shirts. Yeah. Like graphic tees. Nice.
Creative Inspiration
MD: Who or what is your creative inspiration?
MM: Ooh, that’s a good one. You know, honestly, I used to say everything, but you get lost in that. So as of recently, there’s a creative duo, to my knowledge, they’re from Spain. And again, to my knowledge, it’s pronounced Pichiabo. And that’s what they go by on Instagram. But I’m so inspired by their work because they’re really great at putting together beautiful colours, but like neoclassism, neoclassical sculpture with graffiti and making you think about the dichotomy, the duality of those two things. And that’s what the work is that I worked on at the Chateau is very inspired by their ability to combine text, but also just classic sculpture. Yeah.
Creative Routine
MD: Thank you. What is your routine for your creativity?
MM: My routine?
MD: Do you have one?
MM: Again, it’s just living. I mean, I’ve always wanted to be an artist since I was a child. I mean, since I was three. So, I mean, to answer the question, it’s I have to do it again. It’s like, why collage? Why would I hoard millions of, add so many magazines in my basement? And it’s just a calling. It really is. Like, I just, I’m just, I can’t stop myself from like ripping the paper. It’s very therapeutic. My art is so therapeutic for me. And I’ve been able to figure out a balance between, you know, like doing something decorative and pretty, but also telling my story or telling the story of whoever has asked me to make the art. If that answers the question.
MD: Yeah, it does. I know you work as well, like most creatives here. We all have other parts of our lives. So how do you fit your creativity in around that?
MD: Well, I have a practice where I draw something every single day, or at least, at the very least, I share a look into, oh, this is what I’m curious about. Oh, so I have an Instagram that has a, it’s called Manning Everyday. And it’s just me sharing what’s on my mind and what I created. And you can kind of see some posts from it behind me, actually. Like these are just things. I’m just like, I did this today. I made this today. I, you know, but it’s, it’s, it’s ongoing, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, the Collage Don is kind of a brand I’m trying to develop. And I also have, I want to work towards making a children’s book or couple. I want to make a bunch. So I have a lot on my mind and I’m getting better every year at being able to do that, being able to sparse through all these projects I want to do.
Creative Wisdom
MD: If you were to make someone who’s just at the beginning of their creativity and exploring, what piece of wisdom, what little pearl or pearls would you want to give them?
MM: Give me a second. So, I mean, I was a teacher with kindergartners for a while, for 10 years. And, you know, I want to be accurate. I want to think about who’s going to see this. I would say draw every day. That’s what I would say. That’s my, yeah. And copy, copy. Do not let anyone tell you, oh, you copy that. Like you just, you have to train yourself. And it was hard for me to hear that and be like, oh, that’s it. That’s the secret.
Like you want more, but it’s so important to be disciplined and to draw and copy things every day because you’ll get the muscle memory. That it’s so, so, so, so, so, so it’s, that is, to me, it was the thing that I was like, it was staring at me the whole time as an artist. It’s just copy the grades, copy anything that’s like, I can’t stop looking at this.
Copy it, trace it if you have to. And you’ll develop muscle memory, you’ll develop a hand for how to draw faces, portraits, whatever you’re interested in. That’s the best advice I’ve been given is copy, copy, copy. And do it for yourself. Don’t do it to, just do it to get better. And get a little better every single day. Yeah.
Connect with Michael Manning
Liked this interview?
Like, comment, follow and share!
Podcast for creatives
If you haven’t discovered Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley podcast, I’d recommend having a listen. It has weekly drops of these bite sized episodes that feature creatives talking about their creative process, routine and inspiration. Each week has some great pearls of wisdom for everyone who is living or wishes they were living a creative life.
