Communication Student Makes Art on the Mall Debut With Watercolors

Communication Student Makes Art on the Mall Debut With Watercolors

The assignment given to Zoey Maness and her fourth-grade classmates was simple: Draw what they aspired to be when they grew up.

Maness drew herself as an adult veterinarian and included some tools of the trade and what she remembers to be a ferret.

Now 28, Maness never did pursue veterinarian as a profession; however, the assignment did point her to a future career: artist.

"My mom and my teachers all made comments about my drawing, specifically being really detailed and telling me how well I had done. It felt good to be praised but I think even then I felt a pull to the arts," Maness said. "For me, creating art is really accomplished by the drive you feel, the push to keep practicing even when you are tired, making time when you feel like you have none and messing up over and over until your work looks how you imagined."

Maness, who moved to Toledo in 2019 from her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, works full time at The University of Toledo Medical Center as a staffing coordinator for nursing administration and is a junior studying communication. "Initially I wanted to go for multiage art education, but an online program just works better for me," she said. "I am hopeful that a degree in communication will get me where I want to be, possibly in an administrative position with the arts."

And while she stuck with drawing until high school, when she briefly also dabbled in acrylics until realizing the medium didn't suit her, she has since fallen in love with watercolors after she discovered a book on Japanese brush art.

"I bought a set of Windsor and Newton watercolors and bamboo brushes, which is still my go to brand even now, and basically that's how it all started," she said. "As I truly experimented with watercolor, it easily became my favorite medium," she said. "I love the ability to layer the paint, the jaggedness of cold pressed paper that creates the perfect pull of the brush, the way simple water control with the brush can create numerous styles and creating blooms with wet paint on wet paper. Watercolor brings my ideas to life better than any other medium I have tried."

Maness will be selling her original watercolor paintings in a variety of sizes and subjects in booth 106 at the 31st annual Art on the Mall on Sunday, July 28.

Hosted by The University of Toledo Alumni Association, the free, public event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Centennial Mall and will feature more than hundred artists from around the country in a range of styles - acrylic, glass, pen and ink, oil, mixed media, metals, photography, ceramics and jewelry - for viewing and purchase with either cash or credit card directly at an artist's booth.

"Artists from across the country join us for Art on the Mall, but it is especially meaningful to have one of our own students participate and get excited about sharing their work with our community," said Ansley Abrams-Frederick, director of alumni programming at UToledo. "It's truly amazing that this tradition has spanned more than 30 years and continues to draw more artist participation as well as the ongoing support from local vendors and sponsors."

Maness, who has never participated in a major art show like Art on the Mall, credits UToledo for being part of it.

"I decided to apply to Art on the Mall after a few of my coworkers told me to look into it," Maness said. "As an online student, it is nice to have these opportunities to get involved as a student and meet other students and alumni.

"Being a painter is something I have worked at for a very long time, but going back to school has definitely given me confidence and opportunities," she added. "I had never been in a showcase or sold my artwork in a vendor event until this year, and actually my first showcase was at UTMC. Four of my paintings were accepted into the 19th Annual Health Science Campus Artist Showcase, and my 'Blue House' painting was chosen to be on the flyer for the showcase. It was very affirming for me, that art is meant to be in my life in some capacity."