Saturday, October 17, 2026
The third annual Wonder Wall art show at The Art Studio in Rockville Centre on Dec. 14, was packed with attendees and artists, whose work stems from various inspirations, backgrounds and media.
Anna McManus of Rockville Centre, whose work was on display during the annual art show, said she gets her inspiration from her childhood memories.
“Growing up, my grandma always had flowers. I just really wanted to incorporate the flowers that my grandma raised me with,” McManus said. “The first one’s called ‘Barbie’s Bouquet’ and it’s based on the pinks, the blues and the brights and then I realize you don’t really see a lot of dark bouquets, so I did the darker one. It’s called ‘Moody Bunch.’ I did that one a little bit later.”
The Wonder Wall was the first time McManus has had her artwork featured in a show. She said she found out about it from the studio’s email list and was surprised because she didn’t remember signing up. For McManus, it was a refresher point in her artistic career.
“I’ve always been interested in art ever since I was little,” McManus said. “And just recently I’ve had some time, so I’ve been painting a lot within the past year. I really started painting again and it’s been probably at least 20 years since I really painted before that. I try to create at least, whether digital art or painting, probably once a week.”
Nancy Geng Vassilakis isn’t a student at The Art Studio either. She’s a local artist from Merrick who found the studio on social media. Her work “Mysterion” and “Christmas Star,” were put on display during the Wonder Wall event. Vassilakis got her start in the art world when she was very young, in a rather unique way.
“I drew on my parents’ menus because they owned a restaurant, so I would turn it upside down and it would be white on the other side,” Vassilakis said. “I would just draw and paint on the backs of the takeout menus.”
Fran Kraus-Schmidt of Oceanside, on the other hand, found out about Wonder Wall in time to see last year’s show. Then she started taking workshops at the studio, which was how she got involved in this year’s event.
“I just pick up a piece of paper and then I just see what I can add to it that goes with it,” Kraus-Schmidt said. “I guess I wanted to use that yellow piece of paper and then I just kept finding things that kind of go with it.”
That yellow piece of paper is part of her work “Passing Through,” which was on display at the art show. It has an interesting story behind it.
“A friend of mine went to Thailand, and she brought me back a stack of paper made out of elephant poop,” Kraus-Schmidt said. “So the yellow in the background is paper from that. And then the pieces here are cut from a vintage book. It’s actually like a chain link fence on a baseball field, and I cut them into strips and I put them on there.”
Her initial spark of artistry happened during the pandemic. She was frustrated from working at home and needed an outlet. She had previously done photography and knitting, but her mixed media artwork came alive at that point.
“I started getting into doing collages when I was working from home,” she said. “I found it very stressful when I was waiting for a phone call or an email. For some reason ,I would pick myself up, go into the next room and just start gluing down pieces of paper.”
