In A Metal Web: The Art of Michael Manning

Winter Solstice 2009

2009-12-22T01:08:22Z

Wishing you all light and warmth on the longest night of of the year and a safe journey on the road to the rebirth of the Sun.

Currently listening to: LOSCIL "Plume" (Kranky) http://www.myspace.com/loscil http://loscil.ca/blog/

R.I.P. David Aaron Clark (1960-2009)

2009-12-05T00:18:51Z

I'm going to try to keep this brief because right now, I'm mentally and spiritually exhausted. I'm also filled with an incredible amount of depression and anger from having to engage in needless struggles on multiple fronts that I'm finding it difficult to think straight and I don't want a eulogy for a friend to end up turning into a tirade about how much the world sucks (it does) and how most people are useless idiots (they are).

My friend, writer/filmmaker David Aaron Clark, died Saturday afternoon on November 28th. For those of you who didn't know him or his work:

http://business.avn.com/articles/36884.html

Photo by Glenn Baren

In a typically absurd turn of events, I received the news of his death at the end of a Three Stooges film festival at the Alex Theater in Glendale. Just as I was turning my phone back on, the call came in on from a mutual friend, Aiden Starr, who had taken him to the hospital that afternoon and been in the ICU moments before he passed away. After spending several hours laughing hysterically along with hundreds of fellow Stooges fans, suddenly I was alone in a hallway, talking to a friend could barely control her grief. As I listened to Aiden and watched the theater empty out around me, I felt like a ghost myself. My impression of David in that moment was so vivid that the thought of him not being alive anymore, of never seeing him or speaking with him again, was absolutely intolerable. He had just been at my birthday party last Saturday. How the fuck could he be dead? I've been asking myself that question constantly during the past week.

Since it was the end of the month, Lyn and I, along with Aiden, John Nystrom, Charles Pinion and many of David's other friends and coworkers, spent most of the following day cleaning up and clearing out his apartment at the Gaylord in Korea Town. Aiden had assured us that since he had no living relatives that he knew of, David had wanted his closest friends to take his possessions. It wasn't the first time I've had to go through someone's belongings following their death. My brother and mother were probably the most difficult. David's wasn't any easier though the process yielded revelation after revelation about what a rich, weird and complex David life had lived. Aiden and John and I saved as many of his personal photos as we could. I spent the earlier part of the week posting them on Facebook for his friends and admirers. The outpouring of grief on David's Facbook profile has been immense. I'd suggest that you check it out but unless he's already added you as a friend, you can't. Suffice to say that he will be missed terribly by many.

Summing up David's life would be a futile task. Others have done and will do a better job than I ever can. Rather than focus on his death though, I feel some personal history as to how we came to know each other is in order.

Before I knew him as a friend, David wrote some of the earliest and best reviews of Spiral, The Spider Garden and Hydrophidian. I first met him (along with his partner at the time, Joanne) at a Valencia Street cafe shortly after he had moved to San Francisco. I was immediately impressed by this mountain of a man who was as intelligent and well-read as he was tattooed and pierced - a gentleman pornographer in the best Wildean tradition. Each new meeting with him revealed more things that we had common, aesthetically and creatively. Having both originally grown up on the East Coast, I think we also bonded over the sense of shared cynicism and stubborn work ethic that tends to come with that kind of upbringing, especially in the face of SF's pervasive bliss-ninny/pseudo-liberal hipsterism - though I would often catch a good-natured ribbing from him about what he perceived as my "sensitive hippy attitude". The interview he conducted with me in the kitchen of his Mission District flat one morning in 1994 (later reprinted in my art collection Lumenagerie) became a snapshot of both of our lives at that time. We had recently discussed doing a follow-up interview for a new edition of Lumenagerie - yet another collaboration that will never be realized.

To say that he was a long-time supporter of my work would be a complete understatement. From the time that he worked at Screw in NYC, through his writing position at the Spectator in SF, to his time as a film director in LA, David constantly championed my work, personally and in print, and was always looking for ways to bring me on board for various film/media projects. David also understood that artists survive by means of the personal connections they make and was responsible for introducing me to numerous people in the West Coast fetish/bondage/underground art & music scene: dancer/performance artist Jade Blue Eclipse, writer Danielle Willis, artist-provocateur Steve Leyba, filmmaker/actor Charles Pinion, fetish model Kumi Monster, actress Aiden Starr and many more.

Photo by John Nystrom

I can still hear hear David's voice and feel his presence even as I write this but mostly I feel a great sense of emptiness. As a person, he was utterly unique and there will be no one to fill the void his absence has created. No one. No one to feel that particular sense of comradeship with and to commiserate over the creative and financial humiliations one regularly suffers as a freelance artist. There will be no new DAC films, no new short stories, no new columns or articles. No one to call bullshit on the overly-privileged, the smugly self-satisfied, the politically correct and morally bankrupt. No one to tell the Truth - and worst of all there will be no more of the small things: the phone calls urging me to check out some new anime series or film that captured his imagination, the emails with links to things he thought would delight and/or dismay me, the way he'd roll his eyes (literally or figuratively) at news of some current difficulty with a publisher or client as if to say "Yes Michael... been there, done that... what did you expect?" and the way this world-weary cynically eloquent master of language could sometimes be rendered wordless by something that truly delighted him, how he'd smile helplessly as he struggled to find some pithy rejoinder. All memories now that I'll try to hold onto for as long as I can, each time I see something that reminds me of him.

There. I completely failed to keep this brief.

RIP David. See you again some day.

Currently listening to: FALSE VIRGINS "Infernal Doll" (Brake Out Records)

From The Archives

2009-11-21T10:08:58Z

Hydrophidian - Designing the Serpentine Sisters 01

Currently listening to: SEEFEEL "Quique" (Too Pure/Astralwerks)

Foliage

2009-11-20T02:07:26Z

Currently listening to: THIS MORTAL COIL "Filigree & Shadow" (4AD)

THE DIRTY SHOW - LOS ANGELES

2009-11-13T16:56:30Z

Opening reception for the Dirty Show - Los Angeles is tonight Friday, November 13, 2009 - 7-11 PM
at the City Center Motel, 1135 W. 7th Street in beautiful Downtown Los Angeles.

Ample Parking • No Cameras Allowed • 18+ with Valid Photo ID • $10.00

Featured Artists include:
Aaron Hawkes, Alex Aviles, Alva Bernadine (UK), Annie Sprinkle, April Segedi, Ashley (UK), Astrid Kuver, Barry Noland, Billy Ogawa, Billy Pacak, Bob Coulter, Brad Miller, Brian Viveros, Bruce La Bruce, Bryan Barnes, BT Charles, Bunny Yeager, Carolyn Weltman, Chad Michael Ward, Charly B, Charles Green, Chas Ray Krider, Chris Maher, Christine Kessler, Christopher Wright, Clive Barker, Colln Christian, Collin Rae, Corey Godfrey, Cory Marc, Damon Hill, Dan Armand, Dave Naz, Douglas Cason, Ed Fox, Elizabeth Stephens, Eric Kroll, Erin Frost, Eva Midgley, Francois Dubeau, Fredric Fontenoy (FR), Gary Breckheimer, Gary Lee, Geza X, Gina King, Glenn Barr, Gregory de la Haba, HR Giger, Harald Seiwert, Heidi Bluegirl, Hugo, J. L. Robbins, Jason Yates, Jeff Wack, Jeremy Harvey, Jeremy MF Thomson, Juan Martin Del Campo, Jill Greenberg, Jeff Faerber, John Santerineross, Julie Simone, Justice Howard, Keith Mueller, Ken Keirns, Kenny Scharf, Kurt Hernon, Lara Allport (AU), Lisa Boyle, Lisolette Gilcrest, Marc DeBauch, Marilyn Zimmerwoman, Mark Arminski, Mark Dancey, Marne Lucas, Michael Breyette, Michael Manning, Michael Rosen, Michael Siu, Mike Williams, Missy Suicide, Niagara, Nicole Steen (CA), Nina Friday, Pablo Davis, Passia Pandora, Paul Rumsey, Peter Keresztury, Pierre Radisic (Belg), Ken Josephson, R. Alan Warren, Renard Garr, Richard Avery, Rick Castro, Rick Morris, Rik Garret, Robert Rosenheck, Robyn Breen, Rod McDonald, Roger White, Ron Zakrin, Ronald Shelley, Ross Brownsdon, Ross Johnston, Sam Holden, Samarel (Israel), Simon Barret, Stacey Lande, Stan Konowitz, Steve Diet Goedde, Sue Rynski (FR) Taurus Burns, The Pizz, Theoni Sapounas, Tom Porta (italy), Tom Thewes, Tracee Mae Miller, Travis Jonk, Travis Shinn, Tristan Eaton, Tulip Enterprises (GE), Vato, Victor Lightworship, Viva Van Story, Yonilab (FR)... and more!

Currently listening to: KID LOCO "A Grand Love Story" (Yellow Productions/East West)

New MM Artwork For Sale

2009-11-11T03:40:32Z

I've added nine original pieces to the Artwork For Sale section of my Spider Garden site.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php

Seven of these pieces originally appeared in Inamorata, the eighth is from In A Metal Web and the ninth, a Hydrophidian related piece, is currently unpublished. Framed pieces are in 3/4" matte black wood frames with spacers between the artwork and the glass.

Aurora & Sex Doll (2004) 12.75" x 13.75" framed: $450
Spider Garden character Reina Aurora receives some oral worship from a masked slave who's been transformed into her latex-clad sex doll.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=2&s=76&cs=6&o=0

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Ballerinas 01 (2004) 18" x 18" framed: $600 Purchased as a set with Ballerinas 02: $1100
Two fetish ballerinas in latex masks and toe shoes prepare to have the limits of their flexibility tested.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=3&s=76&cs=6&o=0

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Ballerinas 02 (2004) 18" x 18" framed: $600 Purchased as a set with Ballerinas 01: $1100
Two fetish ballerinas form a unique connection with the help of their piercings and a dildo gag.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=4&s=76&cs=6&o=0

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Naiads 01 (2004) 12.75" x 13.75" $425
Latex naiads, voluptuous aquatic slaves from the world of the Spider Garden, swim in the depths of their kingdom, Hydrophidian.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=55&s=76&cs=6&o=3

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Pet: Lick (2003) 20.5" x 11.5" unframed: $650 framed: $675
From the "Pet" illustration series. These large-scale pieces feature dynamic multi-panel layouts similar to my comix pages. In "Lick", an androgynous dominatrix enjoys her pretty female pet's pierced tongue in a variety of ways.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=58&s=76&o=3

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Pet: Mounted (2003) 20.75" x 14".5" unframed: $700 framed: $725
From the "Pet" illustration series. These large-scale pieces feature dynamic multi-panel layouts similar to my comix pages. In "Mounted", the pet girl submits to sweat-drenched coupling with her mistress.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=59&s=76&cs=6&o=3

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Pet: Exchange (2003) 16.75" x 13.75" unframed: $600 framed: $625
From the "Pet" illustration series. These large-scale pieces feature dynamic multi-panel layouts similar to my comix pages. In "Exchange", the excited dominatrix finds an alternate use for her pet girl's tail dildo.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=57&s=76&cs=6&o=3

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The Sacred Androgyne (1999) 24" x 16" unframed: $750 framed: $775
A large-scale portrait of Shaalis The Sacred Androgyne, Mastress of the Spider Garden flanked by a pair of male and female slaves who've been specially outfitted for Hir pleasure.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=64&s=76&cs=6&o=4

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Trotter (2003) 17" x 12" framed: $475
A gorgeous tattooed pony girl feels the sting of her trainer's hip.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=73&s=76&cs=6&o=4

Currently listening to: DATACIDE "Datacide II" (Fax)

Dirty Show - Los Angeles - Nov.13th & 14th, 2009

2009-11-06T19:49:11Z

See you there...

http://dirtyshow.org/

Currently listening to: ATOM™ FEAT. TEA TIME "XXX" (Rather Interesting)

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T00:58:32Z

Currently listening to: THE FALL "Live At The Witch Trials" (Cog Sinister)

More antiquated technology...

2009-10-30T19:18:46Z

Look what I found in the discard pile next to our recycle bins. I almost shit myself. It's weird. Just a week or two ago I was just talking with a fellow 16mm aficionado about how nice it would be to own one of these and low and behold...

Currently listening to: HARMONIA 76 "Tracks & Traces" (Rykodisc)

Transformers

2009-10-29T07:58:42Z

So you think that badly animated piece-of-crap robot show from the mid-'80's is the OG transformers? Guess again, my friend. The REAL transformers are right down the block from me and all over my 'hood. Probably all over yours too. Personally, I find them fascinating. They come in all different configurations, my favorite being the three-phase step-down version below. They've crept into the architecture of my illustrations in the past (along with another perennial favorite: trolley cables) and I'm certain you'll be seeing more of them in the future.

Currently listening to: V/A "100% Dynamite!" (Soul Jazz Records)

Framed 01

2009-10-13T17:24:27Z

My cover paintings and Blood Ceremony illustration for K. McVey's Antrana Trilogy matted and framed in their home environment. Photos courtesy of K. McVey.

Currently listening to: KID LOCO "DJ-Kicks" (!K7)

Warrior Dominatrix Tattoo Design

2009-10-12T17:59:07Z

Color version of a tattoo design based on one of my cover paintings for the Erskan Chronicles. This piece incorporates the elements of Earth & Water to balance the client's existing tattoo of a geisha with Wind & Water elements.

Currently listening to: THE TEARDROP EXPLODES "Kilamanjaro" (Mercury)

Feline Back Piece

2009-10-08T19:34:56Z

Line art for a back piece that will eventually be in color. The blank areas will incorporate pre-existing tattoo work.

Currently listening to: KING LOSER "Sonic Super Free Hi-Fi" (Turbulence Records)

PURE site

2009-10-02T18:19:29Z

Some nice stills and clips, profiles of the major players and a short mention for yours truly:

http://evildistributor.com/pure/index.html

Oh yeah, and the dvd is officially available as of yesterday.

Photo by Glenn Baren/Evil Angel

Currently listening to: V/A "Amµnition" (Planet Mu Records)

10-01-09

2009-10-01T21:44:56Z

As of today, October 1st, I've been living in Los Angeles for four years.

The past week's flurry of people moving out of our building has been an interesting reminder of where things were at for me four years ago. I remember waking up that morning in a vast empty space, thinking about the fires we had seen in the Hollywood Hills the night before, wondering if the movers had managed to make it over the Grapevine with our stuff. After 14 years in SF's Mission District, we had re-entered the industrial zone with a live-work space. The sounds, the smells, the people were all different and LA felt like a giant undrawn map that I was trying to fill in a fraction at a time.

Four years later (and currently, after a week of being sick), I don't really know if I have any great personal insights into it all. As an artist, I'm still facing a lot of the same challenges I was when I was in SF - still struggling to make ends meet, still trying to figure out where I fit into it all - but as a person, I honestly can't think of any place I'd rather be. I love being here with Lyn, I love the friends we've made and I love my studio. Downtown and the greater LA area continue to be a great source of inspiration for me. There's a lot more of everything here, both good and bad, and if that means taking longer to sort it all out (another four years?), I feel like I'm still up for it.

Currently listening to: YO LA TENGO "Popular Songs" (Matador)

Zille & Construct sketch from ECSTATIC

2009-09-30T04:17:50Z

Currently listening to: TANGERINE DREAM "Rubicon" (Virgin)

NIBELUNGEN book available for pre-order from SUM LEGIO

2009-09-23T18:06:48Z

Reserve your copy here:

http://the-nibelungen.com/chest.html?page=shop.browse&category_id=1

Currently listening to: EARTH "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version" (Sub Pop)

Stables of the Sacred Androgyne?

2009-09-15T07:48:33Z

I took these photos in the Baldwin Coach Barn in the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - originally part of the 46,000 acre Baldwin Ranch. Constructed in the late 1800's, the outside of the building has an ornate Victorian-era red & white Candy Land kind of feel to it but the inside is even more interesting.

The interior walls and ceiling are made of alternating slats of cedar and redwood and in the back of the ground floor behind the carriage area, there are four horse stalls separated by cast iron grillwork with pillar-like hay and grain chutes that are fed from the loft on the second floor.

All of the coach house's wood and metal work is beautifully crafted and considering that it had been a working stable for at least half a century, in amazingly good shape and meticulously clean. There was even an adjoining Victorian-style dog house for the ranch's bull mastiffs. It was - in short - a very VERY sexy environment.

With the afternoon light glowing on the dark varnished wood and antique metalwork, I felt like I was in the stable of some Tranceptor outpost or on the grounds of the Spider Garden and it really didn't take much effort to imagine some human ponies in those stalls being groomed, saddled and served by their androgynous Mastress...

Currently listening to: NOBODY PRESENTS BLANK BLUE "Western Water Music Volume II" (Ubiquity)

Rum, Sodomy and the Lash

2009-09-09T08:09:06Z

Currently listening to: DUSTDEVILS "Struggling Electric + Chemical" (Teenbeat)

Macho Sluts

2009-09-08T17:14:41Z

The Little Sister's Classics Edition of Patrick Califia's "Macho Sluts" can be purchased here:

http://www.arsenalpulp.com/bookinfo.php?index=301

I've said this before but it's worth saying again: if you have even a vague interest in well-written boundary-breaking erotica and you haven't already read "Macho Sluts", please do yourself a favor and order a copy now. For those of you who already own one, Patrick's new introduction alone mandates a purchase. The cover art is just icing on the cake (for me, anyway).

Currently listening to: MARK STEWART + MAFFIA "Learning to Cope With Cowardice" (Plexus/On-U Sound)

Happy Labor Day

2009-09-07T18:34:06Z

Happy Labor Day, fellow labors. Especially all you freelancers & small business owners. I'm going to celebrate the way I usually do: by working - and maybe a drink and some volleyball after quitting time. Na zdrowie!

Currently listening to: AFRICAN DUB ALL-MIGHTY "Solid Gold" (Rocky One)

New MM Artwork For Sale

2009-08-28T17:48:55Z

I've added six new pieces to the Artwork For Sale section of my Spider Garden site.

http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php

Two new black & white Spider Garden illustrations on the theme of the latex concubine. Both pieces can be purchased as is or in a 3/4" matte black wood frame.

"Concubine + Tengu 02" features a gagged & corseted beauty in a passionate embrace with a Tengu client.

Concubine + Tengu 02 (2009) 7" x 7.5" unframed: $350 framed: $375
http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=8&s=67&cs=5&o=0

"Oral Concubine 01" provides her own special brand of lip service to a well-heeled partner (possibly the Sacred Androgyne?) from a POV angle. Her shape of her wig is based on the head of a dragonfly I found recently.

Oral Concubine 01 (2009) 8.5" x 7.5" unframed: $375 framed: $400
http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=52&s=67&cs=5&o=3

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"Latex Pony" is a new color painting of a human mount being offered up for inspection to a crop-wielding equestrian.

Latex Pony (2009) Ink & acrylic paint on illustration board. 8.75" x 9" $450
http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=41&s=67&cs=5&o=2

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"Futanari Mistress 02" part of the Futanari Maids & Mistress series - a revealing portrait of the shemale maids' hermaphroditic mistress. It probably won't come as a surprise to know that one of her favorite hobbies is horse-breeding...

Futanari Mistress 02 (2009) Ink & pencil on bristol. 10.5" x 7.75" $325
http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=34&s=67&cs=5&o=2

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"Futanari Bride 05" - a new image in the Futanari Wedding series - has the buxom & well-hung bride giving out oral favors to the wedding party.

Unlike the other drawings in this series which are marker on bond, "Futanari Bride 05" was drawn and inked with a combination of pen & brush on vellum surface bristol but I've included it in the Sketch section with the rest of the Wedding images to keep things simple.

Futanari Bride 05 (2009) Ink & pencil on bristol. 11.5" x 8.5" $250
http://www.thespidergarden.net/sketchforsale.php?img=7&s=18&cs=2&o=0

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"Masque 06" is a new addition to the Masque color painting series in which a collared hooded submissive applies some natural lubrication to the hand of a latex-gloved dominant.

Masque 06 (2009) 6" x 6" Ink & acrylic paint on illustration board. $250
http://www.thespidergarden.net/artforsale.php?img=50&s=67&cs=5&o=3

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Currently listening to: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE "Feels" (Fat Cat)

Crow

2009-08-28T00:12:39Z

From a logo I designed for my friend Dan's audio studio.

Currently listening to: SPACEMONKEYZ VERSUS GORILLAZ "Laika Come Home" (Astralwerks)

Dragonfly

2009-08-25T06:02:09Z

Currently listening to: TETSU INOUE "World Receiver" (Instinct)

Latex Pony 02

2009-08-21T23:17:28Z

Currently listening to: THE DARKSIDE "All That Noise" (Beggars Banquet)