HALEY MANCHON
MAY 18-31 // HOME STUDIO // HATBORO, PA
Haley Manchon grew up in a small town outside of Philadelphia and received her BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2018. She now shares a studio and gallery space with Kelly Sullivan, a fine artist based in Lambertville, NJ. She helps design work for Kelly’s Paint.Team, a collaborative art web application.
Haley had a solo exhibition, Exposed!, at Sussex County Community College in October. Additionally, her work has recently exhibited at Art Fair 14C (both in the juried show as well as represented by MK Apothecary); The Peninsula Gallery’s Figuratively Speaking in Lewes, DE; CLIP: An International Exhibition of Works on Paper in Lubbock, TX; the Offscreen Art Show at Ground Floor Gallery in Brooklyn, NY; Raritan Valley Community College’s More Than A Feeling in Branchburg, NJ; the Strathmore Hall Foundation’s Annual Juried Exhibition Night in Bethesda, MD; and the Colored Pencil Society of America's 26th Annual International Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois.
Sometimes I'll scan my sketchbook drawings so that I can color them digitally in Photoshop. I had started my Biker Backpacker months ago, working at an extraordinarily slow pace. It never felt like it was going to be finished. That was the first thing I wanted done, and was able to knock it out in a couple of days.
In previous residencies, I would use a projector to blow up my drawings large-scale to make bigger pieces. I decided to get my own projector for Christmas...and left it in my room unopened for six months. A couple of days into Shelter, I finally read the manual, hooked it up to my phone, and created a setup in my room to work with for the night. I first transferred an old collage onto canvas with acrylic. I haven't touched it since that first night, so I'm hoping to dig into it again later.
The next project created from my projector was a sketch from last year. I wanted to take this small-scale image and enlarge it to create something more refined from imagination. I played with different pencils to achieve different stone textures. The process was really cathartic, and I ended up spending a lot of time on this drawing. It's nearly finished, and I plan on scanning the work and doing digital edits like with my Biker Backpacker sketch.
Details of the projection drawing.
I keep a little journal to jot things down in daily. I started doing this early April. This is where I would log daily progress, reminders, and research for my work during Shelter. I also would doodle and write on other things, usually because my journal was somewhere else.
I love doodling little characters! I try to draw them often, and some I save to be used for stickers, temporary tattoos, or future drawings. The Crying Hug was doodled on the side of a drawing for an exhibition in 2019. This was then trimmed and hidden behind the drawing, which sold, so I used a photo to recreate it digitally.
My grandfather gave me self-hardening clay when I was a kid, and I had used it once or twice. I hadn't touched the clay for about ten years, but I really wanted to try sculpting a figure from an armature. I decided to use my little character Clyde as a base. First, the clay had to be rehydrated by sealing it into a bag with water for a couple of days. The bags were surrounded by water so that pressure was evenly distributed, and the water would be absorbed into the clay. The armature was built with wire & tinfoil, and then the clay was piled on and refined with different sculpting tools.
I ran into an issue with cracking, but thankfully it wasn't severe. It just took some extra time to patch it up each day I worked on it. I learned everything from watching YouTube videos.
My mom joined me in sculpting, and made a candle holder with red clay (not pictured). It was really nice getting to share that experience with her.
This is what Clyde looks like now! The sculpt is done - I have some areas I may smooth with sandpaper, and then I'll paint him with acrylic. He is also supposed to have a cape and messenger bag, but the plan is to make those with fabric.
The day before I started Shelter, I found out I would be losing my Lambertville studio. I'm at peace with it. I had the space for two years, and I'm grateful to have had it for as long as I did. There was a lot to bring home, though, and it will definitely take a lot of work over the next few weeks trying to arrange it all. I don't believe I'll be looking for a new studio for a little while. I'd rather save up money and try to figure out some long term goals.
