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The art comes through me,” says Lafayette artist Dana Manly. Her work and her approaches to creativity have become a lifestyle, she explains. “The further away from the canvas you are, the more likely it is for this ‘creative being’ to come through you. I actually back away from the canvas and I become a conduit. I know this all sounds corny, but it works for me.”

In the 17 years of honing her craft, one of the most valuable lessons Manly learned – and there have been many – is that you can’t bring reason into creativity, especially when it’s central to your career.

The New Orleans native arrived in Lafayette in 1993 to study fine arts. That is, until the day her mother asked, “What are you going to do with that?” Practicality won out, and she went on to LSU to earn a master’s degree in kinesiology, and later returned to University of Louisiana at Lafayette to earn another master’s in counseling.

But art reawakened in her during her early 30s, and Manly painted part-time during her stints as a licensed professional counselor and exercise physiologist. When she decided to fully commit to painting eight years ago, it was “blind faith” when she built a 600-foot studio behind her home. “It was about showing up…daily…in a studio, and I wanted the space to be my business,” she recalls.

Spirituality of Work

Since 2004 her acrylic paintings and other art forms have displayed the profound appreciation she has for her gift – a gift she does not take for granted. They depict New Orleans, religion, love, friendship and hope.

“If there’s no depth to a subject, I’m not interested, and there’s always a spiritual nature in much of what I do,” adds Manly.

Her spirituality is most evident in her mixed media art, with its gilded gold religious figures, candleholders, crosses on shadow boxes. One of her newest collections “Crown of Protection” utilizes different textures, fabric, wire, paper and selenite in the making of the majestic gold crowns. Centered at the bottom of each is a small medallion of the Immaculate Conception, or one of several favored saints: Michael, Benedict, Patrick…the list grows as clients make special requests. “The crowns are about love and adorning something that is protective and powerful,” the artist explains. “I incorporate selenite because it’s said to have a spiritual quality that cleanses negative energy and opens up divinity, like angels.”

Her “Madonna and Child” lamps bring new meaning to “statement pieces” – as do her accent tables, her latest projects. The wrought-iron, 16x16x24 tables are topped with wood that has been accented in gold or silver and adorned with crosses, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or simple landscapes, and finished with many coats of varnish.

Manly best expresses her love for the energy of things in her mixed media work. In an earlier series of jazz musicians, she uses acrylics, gels, paper, fabric and resins to make instruments extend off the canvas. Butterflies take flight in a most recent collection by the same name. “The butterflies symbolize a metamorphosis, and the chrysalis represents a bursting out,” she says. “The idea came about when a good friend and I carried this chrysalis in a jar on a day we knew a butterfly was scheduled to come out. When it did, I called her Frida. I like Frida Kahlo; the color and pain of her story inspires me.”

Sketches of Inspiration

One of her most important tools is a sketch journal; she keeps three (made by a friend) and everything in them is eventually created. “There’s something very sacred about taking an idea that’s just looking for someone and grounding it into a space, waiting for me to make it,” she says.

Talking about what inspires her, Manly explains how her subjects choose her. “Things ask me to create or paint them,” she says. “I used to wake up in the middle of the night, and things ‘dropped in’ asking me to paint them. And I put them in my journal. If I see a scene and get a feeling, that might inspire me – like when I was in Ireland and saw a lady in a red dress playing with her children. I’m not moved to paint nature as much, but it gives me the space and quietness for inspiration to come through.”

Physiology & Emotion

Her expertise in kinesiology has given Manly an edge on the understanding of the human form and movement, knowing where a certain muscle is located, and giving depth to the skin. “Art is hard work,” she exclaims. “And the hardest is combining the intellectual with the physical, and knowing how to shadow and where to place that stroke – especially as I’m moving around a big canvas.”

As a portrait artist, Manly has the gift of capturing the soul and spirit of her subject, including brides and grooms, with a modern-day twist. “The first thing I tell my clients who want portraits is that I do abstract portraiture. While the most important thing is to get what the client envisions on canvas, I want to give life to it. When I look at the person, I read emotion more than their personality,” she says with an honest calm about her.

Creative Process

A huge fan of the teachings of award-winning author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love), Manly speaks about the creative genius in all of us and shares how she’s developed her own over the years. “I had anxiety for years, not knowing what to do next. I was in a lot of space with no direction. But then I began to believe that I am an artist and I showed up… and showed up… and began to love looking at the work I and passing it on. My grandmother used to say, ‘Never stop creating,’ and to this day, I feel like she knew something I didn’t.”

She describes her creative process in three words: pray, exercise and work. “I wake up around 6:30 and I pray or meditate before I begin,” she explains. “It’s a reminder that this gift is coming from another place – not me. Then I light my candles, exercise and get to work. I’ll get in the studio around 9:30 and finish around 5:00, all the while working on different projects – like moving from one station to another.” Among those stations, currently, is a painting of Kate Morgan, the resident ghost of Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego.

Outside of Acadiana, her work is currently showing in Covington, Mandeville, Metairie, New Orleans, Alexandria and San Diego. She’s come a long way from earlier notoriety of designing the 2014 Festival International poster. Many will remember her commemorative martini glass for Healing House’s 2017 Martini Event. For eight years, she has been the official artist for the St. Jude Acadiana Dream Home. And her portfolio includes a book and CD cover.

Reflecting on the growth of her business in the last two years and looking around her studio, Manly says, “There’s always a next piece to create. I know what I’m here to do and I hope that never changes.”