About this Site
This site chronicles selected works from 1985 to the
present.
In many ways it is a map of how I try to make sense of the world.
Biography
Kent Manske is an imagemaker who uses traditional and digital media to create
prints and books as art. He is a Professor at Foothill College where
he has taught art and visual communication since 1990. Manske has an MFA in
Printmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Resume
Exhibition History
Contact Info
Artist's Statement
Introspection drives my need to create. Processing thoughts, ideas and observations
is the nature of my studio activity.
Through the creation of images and objects, I explore my being and belongingness.
This investigation helps me access
my own truths and facilitates my understanding of the world in a broader context.
I am an imagemaker who creates visual narratives and symbols as instruments of understanding. The works function as conscious maps, providing visual routes for interpreting ideas and making meaning. Each mark metaphorically documents an experience, comments on a situation, or reveals a process of thinking.
My artworks reflect the
outcome of what I regard as serious play. I'm inquisitive about things I
don't understand and create picture narratives to explore
possibilities. This activity seems to be both therapy and entertainment.
I believe that most
of
my works are in and of themselves questions. As I find questions are more
interesting than answers, the works seek not
closure but further inquiry.
Why I make Prints
Printmaking processes serve the conceptual development of my images and
satisfy my passion for working with materials.
My artworks evolve over time. Most evolve from my sketchbooks, which are explorations, brainstorms and time spent just trying to figure things out (politics, fears, beliefs, questions, answers . . ). Drawings, doodles and writings prompt what I need to do next. This might require shooting some photos, scanning images, more drawing or preparing a plate. By plate I refer to setting up a matrix for printing, such as preparing a piece of copper or setting up a digital file.
Getting a plate to its final state is usually an involved process (preparing the plate, mixing ink, preparing stencils, printing proofs . . . ). Each step of the process allows my ideas and narratives to evolve, to become what they are. I enjoy the spaces between processes. Here an image is allowed to gestate, often in search of resolution.
I enjoy working with materials, getting dirty and the smell of ink. Whether painting directly on a plate or using photographic processes, the opportunities for experimentation are enjoyable and revealing. Risk is part of the process. Unexpected results often inform an image, adding to the works significance or meaning.
Why I make Books
Books provide a functional and inhabitable space for my images, thoughts and
language to form. Within this infinitely expandable conceptual space, relationships
emerge, narrative evolves and meaning manifests.
As form, the book provides order, structure and sequence for communication and exchange. Each page provides a private space for contemplation. Most of my book objects use the efficiency of the codex for its fixed sequence and boundedness or the portfolio for its characteristics of containment and embodiment. Both forms provide parameters that guide narrative structure. As an artist, I'm less concerned with a books formal qualities and more on its meaning. I strive for each book to embody their experiential and communicative function.
The book as an image often appears in my artworks. Images have included: books spewing fire and books whose components transcend their pages. As symbols, books reference the passage of time, the evolution of knowledge and the passion for entering other minds. Each symbol manifests not only its contemporary significance but is loaded with the history of the book as a powerful cultural force.
Site Links
Navigation tips
US Copyright Office
Faculty
web page
Guides
Guide to Prints: Digital & Traditional
(.pdf file)
