ART

…this is what 88 hours during the COVID pandemic and 24.628 pop tops look like.

This is what 88 hours during the COVID pandemic and 24.628 pop tops look like…. Photo Credit: Peter Finger

These are pop tops…

…these are pop tops.

Kris is a founding member and two-time past president of the Art Guild of Daniel Island, and a co-founder and curator of the Daniel Island Art Gallery. From 2013-2022, she has been a Piccolo Spoleto performing musician and artist. Kris is a published author, a MOJA Arts Festival award-winning painter and a nationally recognized sculptor.

In 2018, Kris learned some of her signature fabrication techniques from intensive study with Roy Wooley of Syfy's FaceOff , known for work on The Hunger Games, Zombieland and Netherworld. She has studied puppetry with the internationally acclaimed, Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Kris was awarded "Best Social Commentary" for her piece Compassion at the 2017 MOJA Art Festival Juried Art Exhibition. In 2017 she was a presenter/performer for TEDx Charleston where she wrote the script, developed animation, composed music, fabricated puppets, costumes and sets and created “Mind Your Monkeys." 

In 2019, Kris collaborated with renowned artist Jonathan GreenPure Theater and producer Carol Antman in the theater production of Osceola’s Muse. Inspired by the connenction between the Seminole and African history, Kris created an immersive experience as part of the production and a large body of paintings featuring the Seminole people. In 2019 she was commissioned by the Town of Mount Pleasant to paint a large public mural and large oyster shell sculpture to contribute to the town’s artistic flair. The wildly popular Steeple Chase of Charleston commissioned Kris to create a striking artistic focal point for the event - a life-sized horse covered in over 50,000 feathers.

In 2020, Kris took a deep dive into found object art and collaborated with many Charleston artists to create poignant pieces during the COVID pandemic. Artists include miniature artist Ken Hamilton and watercolorist Barbara Meierhusby. In 2021, with the publication of The Field Guide to Fabulous Food, she is also earning recognition as a culinary artist and cookbook author. In 2022, Kris toured the US with the Vienna Light Orchestra playing the drums for the Greatest Showman Tour.

Kris’s works reside in public murals, private collections, and the permanent collections of the City of North Charleston, the City of Charleston, the Town of Daniel Island, the Town of Sullivan’s Island and the Town of Mount Pleasant, SC.

Work in progress pictures of an enormous dragon that I’m currently fabricating. Do you have a Viking Village? Call me: 860.305.7975

Project Highlights

A “Horse of a Different Feather.” Over 50,000 feathers adorn this horse sculpture fabricated for the 2019 Steeplechase in Charleston, SC

A “Horse of a Different Feather.” Over 50,000 feathers adorn this horse sculpture fabricated for the Post and Courier. It has been featured at the 2019, 2020 and 2021 Steeplechase and South Eastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, SC

Mural by Kris Manning on a 1/48th-scale miniature wall measuring around 12" square created by Ken Hamilton

Mural by Kris Manning on a 1/48th-scale miniature wall measuring around 12" square created by Ken Hamilton

Paintings & Murals

Creatures, Costumes, Puppets & Props

Pen & Ink Skylines

Glass Work

More Funky Stuff

Children’s Book Illustrations