MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Morgan Manning, a Maryville College associate professor of design, turned 40 years old in October and it got him thinking.
Manning spent years doing design work for The Chattanooga Zoo got a degree at the Savannah College of Art and Design and has been at Maryville College since 2017. He said he did his first show at the college that year and is excited to show his latest installment, running through March 28.
"(Turning 40) really kind of got me thinking and reflecting on sort of what the last 20 years have been like," Manning said. "And I found myself really intrigued, trying to see if there were visual cues that can be associated with individual years, and what those last 20 years looked like."
Manning found those cues throughout his research and created 20 posters, each documenting a year from 2003 to 2023.
He said he researched to find what fonts were popular during those years and also had the colors used on the posters match each respective Pantone Color of the Year.
Creating the art also allowed Manning to reflect on the past two decades, both personally and culturally.
"The things that I remembered from the early 2000s were more, kind of, pop culture," Manning said. "And I felt like that's sort of where I was in my life at that time. Then, you know, as I advanced and grew through those years the tone got more serious. So maybe I grew up a little bit through those years."
As a faculty member, Manning said he's encouraged to display his works at the galleries at Maryville College.
"I was scheduled to be in the gallery for about the past year or so. So this this is something I've been thinking about, and working toward," Manning said.
It's also important for Manning to encourage his students to partake in the galleries.
"We have students who are doing some really, really great work and engaging with the world around them in really interesting ways," Manning said. "So I encourage anyone who's interested to come out and visit us and see our car spaces and look at the galleries."
Manning's work will be in the Blackberry Farm and William "Ed" Harmon galleries of the Clayton Center for the Arts.
A reception for manning takes place on March 22 at the galleries at 6 p.m.