Artist Jan Manniko will be missed

ALLOUEZ -- Keweenaw Now wishes to express our condolences to the family of artist Janet Manniko, age 79 of Allouez, who passed away July 17, 2013, at Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital in Laurium after battling diabetes for seventy years. We knew Jan as a very quiet, very talented artist we often saw at art exhibits. Here is a photo we took, with her permission, in 2011, published in one of our slide shows of Calumet art:

Artist Jan Manniko finds a quiet corner in the Calumet Art Center to work on a portrait. (Keweenaw Now 2011 file photo)

According to the obituary on the Erickson-Crowley Funeral Home Web site, "Janet attended grade school in Chicago where in 1946 she won first place for her artwork in a city wide competition for children her age sponsored by the Chicago Board of Education. This was the first of many awards she won over a lifetime dedicated to artistic achievement. Janet attended high school in Miami, FL, and then took numerous art classes at the University of Miami and the Art Institute of Chicago where she further developed what turned out to be a passionate attachment to the visual arts. In 1988 at the age of 55 Janet finally completed her formal education by earning a BA degree in Communication from the Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI."

 

Janet Manniko is especially known for her colorful paintings, like this -- her "War With Tree Gods," a scene from the Kalevala, part of the 2011 Art from the Kalevala exhibit at the Copper Country Community Arts Center in Hancock. (File photo courtesy Community Arts Center)

Click here to read the rest of the obituary and more about Jan and her husband of 52 years -- Thomas A. Manniko, woodworking craftsman.

Friends may call at the Erickson Crowley Peterson Funeral Home from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. TODAY, Sunday, July 21. Services will be held at 11 a.m. TOMORROW, Monday July 22, in the Erickson - Crowley - Peterson Funeral Home with Fr. Abraham Mupparathara to officiate.

Burial will be in the Lake View Cemetery. Online condolences may be left for the family by clicking below the obituary.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in Janet's memory to the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation, 1701 N. Beauregard St., Alexandria, VA 22311.