MICHELLE JACKSON MANNIX
Artist Statement
I am a Brooklyn based multi-disciplinary artist, working in the mediums of food, space design, concept creation, and visual art. I’m self taught with supplemental education and training and I find my way by doing. In all forms. I like to get my hands dirty, to create and make things - whether that be with be with paint, food, clay, dirt or interior space. As a visual artist, I enjoy gritty textures (and people!), bold colors, layers, working on found objects, to repurpose things, mixing high and low, and using what I have. I consider my studio a place of refuge, creativity, healing, play and peace. The mediums I use are primarily acrylics and pencil although I also like to use oil and oil sticks as well. I draw inspiration from nature, food, New York City —a place I have lived longer than anywhere else, 27 years!—, simplicity, the experience of life, from artists like Joan Mitchell, Cy Twombly, Alice Neel, Jason Craighead, Jane Cornwell, Helen Frankenthaler and artist friends of mine across all mediums. An intuitive process informs all of my passions as do my shallow southern roots and itinerant background. I find myself constantly dreaming about future projects and am always interested in collaboration.
Artist Bio
I was raised in a military family for the first 13 years of my life and lived in 6 states by the time I was 13; we settled in Virginia where I attended high school and earned a Bachelors in Business Administration from Longwood University. I have led a varied career with positions in Hospitality, Corporate Marketing, Human Resources, Business Development, and following my passion for food and space design, attended twice the 16 week New School Culinary Arts Master Class—once as a student and then again as the Chef’s Assistant. I also worked in the line and prep kitchen at Cafe 2, a Danny Meyer’s restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art. My creative side has most recently been expressed through culinary ventures I have started and run as well as the spaces I have designed.
From 2008-2016 I founded and ran, along with my brother, Ted & Honey, a beloved made-from-scratch cafe in Cobble Hill and Parker Red, a farm to table catering and events space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Shortly after, I opened Cook Space, a culinary studio in Brooklyn designed to develop culinary confidence through letting go of recipes and cultivating one’s own skills and talent. I love to lose myself in the process of experimentation and learning and Cook Space’s mission embodied the very essence of that - learning, doing, curiosity, creativity, and charting your own journey in the kitchen, and beyond. With the closing of Cook Space as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt compelled and inspired to return to a once familiar medium, painting.