Brenda Manheim

“Lego My World”

Location

On Location

Selection Process The reason that I chose this piece of art is

because I could tell that there was a story behind the painting. When I was talking to the director at the Council For the Arts, she told me that the painting was of Brenda's grandson, and I knew that there had to be a reason for her painting it. Also, I saw two of Brenda's other paintings while I was at the Council For the Arts, and I truly enjoyed her style of painting and the amount of detail that was put into each painting. I enjoyed the fact that there were so many intense colors within all of her paintings. From there I knew that I had to learn more about her and her paintings.

An expansion of Brenda Manheim's Paintings

"New Generations"-18 x 24,mixed media,acrylic, marker

"False Prophets of My Life"-mixed media, 12 x 12,acrylic, fabric

Words From The Artist

“Cameron was 13 years old when this painting was started.  I thought I would do something special for him because of his age and that would leave him an heirloom and a gift that would be extraordinary from a Mema.”

History (Brief Biography of Subject)

Cameron was the only child for Brenda's son, but he does have two older half siblings.Cameron was born on August 9, 1999 in Wake County, North Carolina. Even though he was born weighing six pounds he had to where preemie clothes but as he continued to grow he remained underweight. When Cameron was a toddler he would constantly talk but no one could ever understand what he was saying. He was diagnosed with dysproxia when he was three years old. Cameron started school in 2004, and he was rediagonosed with high functioning autism when he was in first grade. He has trouble in school in the beginning but he has improved quite a bit. Because of the autism, Cameron's focus in life has been his LEGOs, he has thousands of them. At one point he slept with all of them on his bed. So because ofh is love for LEGOS, the painting has become a tribute to this part in Cameron's life.

Artist Biography

Brenda Manhiem was born October 30, 1946 and was part of the baby boomer generation after the end of World War 2. She was born in Wilson County, North Carolina and was raised in Wayne County, in Eureka. Brenda was always a creative person. Growing up she would make her own doll clothes out of paper. Once she got old enough to sew, she learned how to use a sewing machine. Brenda was always interested in drawing, however growing up and in school, they did not offer any type of art programs. The art that was incooperated into her learning was included into other areas of study.

Artist BiographyIn the 1980's Brenda owned her own shop.

There was not an actual name for the “business” nor did she make any actual money. She taught fabric painting classes, acrylic painting classes, and classes on making jewelry such as paper earrings. She also did classes at women groups and at her church. It was located in Duplin County. Brenda has a BFA in art education and worked in both Duplin and Lenior County school districts. She first teaching job was a partial and was at Lenior in 1997.

Artist Biography She then worked in Duplin county, from which she

retired in 2012. She taught at North Duplin junior and senior high school. She taught one high school art class per semester but had multiple classes for seventh and eighth graders. Her current inspriations for her paintings are from services done at her church. Right now she is focusing on worship art, which is where she will sit in the back pew on Saturday nights while listening to the service she sketches ideas and paints. Sometimes she will get a random idea, and where she happens to be she will sketch out her idea, so she can expand on it later. While she was in college she was focused on more realistic paintings. With her paintings now she takes elements from both realistic and abstract paintings, to make a combination painting.

An extension of Brenda Manheim's Paintings

Elephant Ears At The Marriott

Who Says You Can't Put a Pig in Your Living Room

Formal Analysis“Lego My World” has both two and three

demensional aspects of work. The way the object lay on the canvas determine wheather they are two or three demensional. The painting itself it both naturalistic and abstract. With Brenda's grandon being the featuring piece of the painting, it makes it naturalitic. But all of the different shapes in the background make it abstract. The feelings that I percieve out the painting are excitement due to all of the bright colors on the painting.

Compare and Contrast

“Lego My World” and “Numbers in Color” are both canvas paintings, they are both very different.”Numbers in Color” is a very large canvas painting of numbers in a vast number of colors. However, it is very hard to determine what colors are actually within the painting. While in “Lego My World” you can clearly tell what are the main colors within the painting. “Numbers In Color” in more of an abstract painting, and it is all two demensional, while “Lego My World” is both two and three demensional.

Compare and Contrast

Lego My World

~Brenda Manheim

Number In Colors

~Jasper Johns

(page 69)