Z.A.A.P. Artist of the Month

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Z.A.A.P. is participating in the First Friday Art Walk and this months theme is ‘Lovely as a Tree’.

Zanesville Appalachian Arts Project’s Artist of the Month is AnneMarie Kovach an artist who loves nature and products of nature used historically. Kovach started years ago making wire trees and attaching them to slate found on her farm.

Photo By: Chase Flowers

“It was actually that huge storm that we had in 2012 that sparked me to actually start trying to do this,” Kovach said. “Which I know is kind of crazy, but that’s kind of how it got started. So I didn’t want to waste those chunks of slate that were broken off the roof in that storm.”

Slate is a metamorphic rock that is easily split into smooth, flat pieces. Historically slate was used as tiles for a roof of a structure, as well as many other things.

Since then Kovach has expanded her craft to memorabilia jewelry, so families can wear the slate from their old barns as a reminder of home.

“I like to keep track of where the slate came from,” Kovach said. “So when somebody buys a piece from me I can tell them the history of part of their piece, because it connects you with it. I mean you it forms a connection that a lot of people would not otherwise have to a piece of art that you bought at Walmart.”

Kovach said she’s expanded through requests, what the community has wanted and through that she’s developed her style.

“You have to develop your craft, I mean you have to work at it.” Kovach said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a painter, if you’re a sculpture, or if you work in ceramics. I happen to work primarily in wire, they would call me a wire artist and I have spent years working on developing my craft.”

You can see Kovach’s art work at the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Zanesville from 5:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.