Amanda Manitach is one of our favorite visual artists in Seattle. She is also one of our favorite writers. So it’s a no-brainer we feature her work in our hallowed (?) pages – both in print and online. Amanda is also one of the busiest people we know – a writer for City Arts, a brilliant water-colorist, a socialite on the pathways of Capitol Hill and much, much more. So, to get a sense of what she does day-to-day, we thought we’d ask her one super important question!

Jake Uitti: Pick the slowest day of this week – what was your schedule on that day, from the moment your eyes opened to the moment you got in bed?

Amanda Manitach: I can barely remember any details from earlier days this week. Today was pretty slow so I’ll go with that.

I wake up sometime before 8 am. I’m alone in bed. I hear a boy in the shower. He rushes off to spend the day making wax molds for a bronze paint roller, among other things.

I get up and drink some orange juice diluted in water. I also eat some cold basmati rice from a plastic container. It has little pieces of bacon in it. Yum! A stranger walked into my studio last night and gave it to me. I sit down and start revising the doc that’s going to end up my City Arts column later in the day. It’s mostly finished but it’ll still take me a few hours to polish up. I’m a slow writer.

I work on that for an hour, then shower, then walk to SU where I pick up posters from Reprographics. They’re posters for Zac Culler’s show of watercolor portraits. The show opens June 4 and it’s going to be amazing. Then I go to my studio (TMRW PARTY, which I run with D.K. Pan) to let Markeith Wiley in. He’s setting up for The New Animals’ performance later this evening. I take garbage left over from last night’s event to the dumpsters. I head back home. I finish the article for my column (I’m talking about the formation of a 12th Ave Arts District) and send it off to my editor. It’s about 4 pm now. Then I totally shirk other responsibilities, pour a glass of red wine and draw for an hour. I’m working on a bunch of mid-size pencil drawings. I wish I could spend 24/7 working on them. I eat more of the freebie rice. (I can’t cook.)

I’ve also been prepping for a one-night show at TMRW PARTY on Friday. It’s called Penis Envy: NSFW and I’ve had to field some interesting shit today: Costco refused to print photographs by one of the participating artists due to “inappropriate content” so we’re looking for last minute printing alternatives. And another artist informed me last night she wants to use starter pistols in a performance and is concerned the noise will be disruptive to neighboring businesses. Conundrum!

I reapply my lipstick and head out the door at 5. I’m excited. Tonight will be fun.

Before going to the studio, I pop into Moe Bar with my attorney to talk about some legal shit relating to TMRW PARTY. My dinner is a g&t and coconut shrimp from Pike St Fish Fry next door. (Pro tip: Moe Bar’s happy hour is incredible and they serve really discounted food from next door till 7 pm.)

The New Animals show is great and weird. Performance like this isn’t really in my wheelhouse, but I like it. A girl draped in flowers and grass and face paint laboriously dances her way up and down a ladder. A guy wrapped in yarn is grinning ear-to-ear. Markeith is a great dancer and it’s always a pleasure to watch him. Around 9 pm, I bounce with my friend H.B. We walk two blocks to Capitol Cider. I’ve never been! It’s adorable and it’s packed. Downstairs a guy is playing tunes on an upright piano. I have a gin drink that’s red and has a giant piece of mint floating on it. Tastes like I’m drinking a sugary garden. We play a game of Battleship by candlelight and I win!

At 10:30 I run into my bf on Broadway. He’s coming from a Mariners game. Mariners won, yay! On the walk home I pick up the new issue of the new City Arts Magazine. Hollis and Geo look so hot on the cover.

Go home, watch the local news and learn there’s currently a Hurricane Amanda! I’m kind of delighted. The bf says he experiences Hurricane Amanda every day. I make an egg and go to bed. It’s midnight, which is actually pretty early for me. I’m going to start deinstalling work at Hedreen in the morning and installing Penis Envy at TMRW PARTY around noon tomorrow.