Stanton Manolakas was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1946, the son of an architectural draftsman and an artist. Manolakas essentially combines the work of his parents in his own work, which features street scenes and cityscapes, borrowing his father’s knowledge of urbanity and his mother’s artistic skill. But Manolakas’ first love was music; he is classically trained at the Eastman School of Music and the University of California Thornton School of Music. He didn’t begin his career in painting until the early 1980s, and soon began painting exclusively in watercolor. Manolakas is listed in “Who’s Who in American Art,” the Marquis Edition of “Who’s Who in the West,” as well as in the same series for the world and America.