New Apartment!

Above: the bathroom




The living room



Sarah in the Kitchen



One view of my room



Another picture of my room.

Let the New School Year Begin!

Hello all,
Alas, late August rolls around again and I find myself in a peculiar new living environment as classes begin again.
My new apartment, which I share with Hannah and Sarah (my dorm-mates from last year), is actually quite ritzy...I feel a little out of place here. Perhaps I'll get some pictures up later.
Anyhow, classes start tomorrow...at 8am. World: meet my earliest class ever. Oh boy... I'm usually a night class kinda girl. The early class is HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION ARTS. whataname. I'm fairly excited as I find I actually like history when it's about art. I have two classes tomorrow, the aforementioned history one and then FUNDAMENTALS OF TYPOGRAPHY, which I'm terribly excited about. I really like how our plain alphabet can sometimes seem so wonderful and have different emotions.
Well, I was in the mood to type and be merry, but now I am far too sleepy. I shall slumber and share more after classes tomorrow.
Oh, and I had a job interview today. My first ever I'm afraid. I hope I get the job! I'd do some office work in VCUarts admissions and also give tours of the school.

good night.

Home/Moving/Working/Stresssssed

So, I'm home now. I finished all of my exams and I believe I may have gotten straight As this semester! (take THAT art history!)

The mother and siblings and I are moving soon, to a house not too far from our current one (like, a five minute drive). It shouldn't be too difficult and the new house has more room and a nice back yard for the kids.

In addition to this, I'm also trying to get in a whole lot of working this summer. I have to save up the cash to pay for the apartment next year (of course I'll have grown-up help with this, but every dolla helps, ya dig?) I think I might apply to that new-fangled "Urban Outfitters" that opened up in Charlottesville.

Speaking of which, off to go write that resume.....

More Videos

Here are the two videos I made about my trip to Qatar.


Qatar Summary I from Grace Manno on Vimeo.


Video Essay: Qatar from Grace Manno on Vimeo.

Dad: This One's For You!

For those who hate to navigate multiple sites:



Hats and a Stache from Grace Manno on Vimeo.


A Self Portrait of Sorts from Grace Manno on Vimeo.


Go Up Box from Grace Manno on Vimeo.


Typography of the Kinetic Variety from Grace Manno on Vimeo.

Frankie T!

Franklin Terrace (which I have renamed Frankie-T) has been having some troubles lately. On Monday during Time Studio the fire alarms went off. Apparently some young (or old) gent wasn't so happy with the trashcan in the men's bathroom. And decided to burn it (?). In any case, that's been under investigation.

Today in Time Studio the same thing happened! A couple boys from our class said that while they were in the bathroom they saw a hole in the ceiling with paper towels stuck up in it. After our bathroom break the alarms went off again. The police-guy came to talk with us and said that someone had started a fire twice today. What is the deal? I like Frankie-T. It's a sweet lil' spanish-roman-bastardization-of-architecture building. What gives?

Comm Arts!

I've been officially accepted into the Communication Arts department (aka: commarts or ca) here at VCU. I was so nervous about getting into my major, but now I can just relax. :)

Here's a link to the departmental website: Commarts

Portfolio Review

Ugh, I can't wait to find out if I got into Communication Arts. I don't know what I'll do if I don't get in...I guess I'll have to settle for P&P for a semester (painting and printmaking). I don't want to feel too confident, ya know? Just in case I don't get in. Then I won't be as upset. We'll see what happens, right? Indeed we will.

A Web Comic. Enjoy?

Click on the image if it's too small.

Qatar pt.I

So. Where to begin. Well...

We took an airplane to Qatar, obviously. The airplane was pretty cool. We flew Qatar Airways, which is said to be "World's Five Star Airline." We were each given a little bag containing the following: socks, earplugs, a toothbrush with an ITTY BITTY toothpaste, headphones, and a little eye mask. Cuuuute. We also got hot towels and blankets and pillows and a little piece of candy. The food on the flight was quite good. I had an Indian dish for dinner and an omlet for breakfast on the way there and on the way back...wow, I can't remember for the life of me what I had. Anyhow, the flight was 12 hours there and 14 hours back (Jeeettttt streeeeaaaammm).

When we got there we took a short trip to the souq (marketplace) for dinner. We were all totally wired, excited, and hungry. We ate at this restaurant that served various foods (wow, you don't say!?!?!) Truth be told, that first day was pretty much a blur....
Here we are at the restaurant ^

Hmm...then the next day. Oh! We went to the pearl, which is the manmade island in Doha. It's pretty cool, and very chic. There were so many high end designer shops. Lots of Armani stores etc etc. We got drinks at a place called Second Cup, which I believe is a Canadian Starbucks type place. Unfortunately my camera was on the fritz all day, so I didn't get pictures of the pearl. LAME.

But then I got my camera fixed up at the supermarket! Here's the picture that the camera man took of me:
Yup, that's in the supermarket. Looks like a Best Buy, right? They fit in basically every food there, European, American, Asian, and Middle-Eastern. And this supermarket was in the mall.

That same day we spent some time in the mall (not the big one). Here's the food court:

The mall had a huge circus themed food court and children's play area. Also a movie theater. What a mall.

Oh, here's a public toilet:

ooh...what a lot of blogging. I'll work on more qatar later...

Herro There

Well, I've decided that I really should keep up with both of my blogs. I guess if I just keep up with them then ideas will flow out of my mind like crazy flowing things. Two blogs are better than one? Perhaps.

The other day a fellow asked which program I wished to get into. I said commarts because I want to write a graphic novel someday. He replied "get rid of that dream really quick" which kind of hurt my feelings. I mean, he don't know me, ya dig? He suggested that I make a web comic, which I agree would be a good idea. Maybe I'll start one of them things. We'll see.


Oh. So I just remembered that whoever reads this blog is probably partially interested in my trip to Qatar. Let me start another post so that I can talk about that a little...

<3 yous

So, I'm Still Alive.

Hello All,
School has started again and me and the "sweet" mates are all settled into our regular dorms. Classes have been going well so far. I'm taking Time Studio with a teacher named Justin Lincoln. He's been really cool so far, and very encouraging of us young, budding, artists. We do one video project a week that is one minute long.
My Surface Research teacher is named Sally Bowring, she, I hear, is a somewhat renowned painter. She has a very heavy New York accent and reminds me so much of Grandma Virginia from back home.
I'm also taking the regular art history with Panbehchi, and a new class called "reading film" which is looking at film like novels, or the ingredients to film.

For my Time Studio class we have to keep a blog on a website called Tumblr.com. My new blog is located here and will probably take all my blog attention. If you care to visit: http://mannoymanno.tumblr.com it's more artsy than this blog, but that's just because of the course requirements. Also, I find that I'm a little bit artsy...

Czech it out! I mean, check it out.