Meet Hannah Manocchio | Owner of Snakes + Acey’s (print shop)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hannah Manocchio and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
As an artist who runs a small business based on their own artwork and craft – work/life balance is near impossible. Artists do not have the ability to “turn off” their creative brain. You are an artist from the moment you wake up and into your dreams. As a small business owner – every moment you are not working is a moment you are losing money, time, and opportunity. Additionally, when your business is based on your artwork – your brand is yourself, your life, and your everything. I have tried to make sure that I no longer stay at work all hours of the night and that I attempt to be there for important occasions and times. This change was only made because you see that your relationships begin to deteriorate because of the lack of balance, it is for others – not necessarily for yourself.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a professionally trained printmaker who specializes in woodcuts and silkscreen. I am one of the few female screen printers with an apparel line in the city who does all of their own design work and all of the printing by hand. In a male dominated world – this was one of the hardest things to compete with. I had to work longer, print better, and hustle harder than everyone to just get my foot in the door and my name out there. My apparel line and my artwork is inspired by history, symbology, social justice, and the occult. I am a sucker for anatomy, mythology, and activism. On top of running my own brick and mortar shop and the business in general – I also teach inner city and after school programming based on art all over Cleveland, specializing in high trauma areas. A lot of the students I work with will not have college as an option and teaching them a skill (silkscreen) that they can go out and find work and move up in a company is something I think is extremely important.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hosting a trip to Cleveland would look as follows:

Breakfast at Big Al’s Diner on Larchmere.
Tour of my shop and the historic neighborhood its located in, Little Italy – making sure to grab a cannoli from Presti’s while we walk and check out the two new murals I helped to create.
Swing by the art museum.
Lunch at Tommy’s on Coventry.
A long walk through Lakeview Cemetery – making sure we stop at all the historical graves.
Hit up the two best local book stores: Loganberry and Mac’s Backs
Dinner at my house for a traditional Italian meal with home made sauce and cutlets.
Hit up Future Ink Graphics and Zygote Press for an art opening.
Nighttime drinks at The Rowley Inn after we tour The Christmas Story house across the street.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It was my family. My sister and mom showing up at 7am to vend countless weekends, selling my products better than I ever could. My pop – constantly filling me with support and inspiration, sweeping and cleaning and making sure the shop looked its best. My grandmother – who conditioned me to have skin as thick as bricks with the reminder that you don’t have to give a shit about everything and everyones opinions. It was my friends – showing up to save me from a bug, to keep me company on late nights, to bring a bottle of wine when I was near a breakdown, a party pack when a party wasn’t possible. It was my boyfriend, making sure that my priority was to keep the shop during the worst of it and keep moving forward, hearing me scream and cry about everything and anything. It was every customer who comes back. Who told me they believed in my mission, my brand, what the company stands for. It was my students, who I could not be more proud of, who remind me that what I am doing is not for myself, it is for them. It is so they know someone has their back and believes in them. It is every client who shared my name, my brand, my work ethic. It was every person who told me I wouldn’t make it, shouldn’t do (fill in the million blanks), should just get a normal job, who told me there was no way it was sustainable, and everyone who told me ‘NO.’

Website: www.snakesandaceys.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snakesandaceys

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snakesandaceys