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MANEK MENTALITY
Junior forward Brady Manek shoots the ball during the game against West Virginia Feb. 8 at the Lloyd Noble Center.
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As Brady Manek’s family and high school coach reflect on the junior forward’s journey from Harrah to Norman, his work ethic positions him for further success CHANDLER ENGELBRECHT @ctengelbrecht
Brady Manek’s phone kept ringing. It was the summer of 2015, just a few months before he would begin his junior season at Harrah High School in Oklahoma. After he finished his sophomore year, in which he averaged just under 11 points per game and helped the Panthers reach the Class 4A semifinals, those calls, texts and other notifications were coming from schools interested in the then-6foot-7 forward. Universities such as G e o rg e t ow n , Ma rq u e tt e,
Wake Forest, Oklahoma State and Tulsa were reaching out to Manek — but he wasn’t answering. Cary Manek, Brady’s father, recalled Brady’s tendency to let the phone ring on most of his recruiting calls didn’t come from a lack of interest in continuing his playing career — it was because his mind was already made up. “He’d look at his phone and tell me, ‘Oh, this is coach whoever from wherever,’ and I’d look at him and say, ‘Answer it,’ but he’d always say, ‘I don’t want to,’” Cary said. “After putting up with that for about a month, I asked him, ‘What’s the hang up? Why won’t you answer these calls? People would die to be in the situation that you are.’
“He looked at me and said, ‘Why would I consider a school like that when I’ve got OU 45 minutes away from the house? ... I’m gonna go to OU.’” Manek would later commit to the Sooners, who were the first to extend an offer, in October of that year. He was Oklahoma’s first commitment in its 2017 recruiting class. Now, more than halfway through his junior season at OU, Manek has gone from just a catch-and-shoot forward in head coach Lon Kruger’s offense to a more well-rounded offensive and defensive player. Along with being the Big 12’s third-leading scorer so far this season, averaging almost 16 points per game on a shooting
percentage just above 47 percent, Manek has already made as many 3-pointers as he did last season, and he’s done so on 23 fewer attempts and in 12 fewer games. He’s also recorded more blocks this season than in either of his previous years with the Sooners, and he’s significantly cut down his total amount of turnovers. On top of that, Manek has cemented himself into the Sooner history books twice this season. Manek became the 46th Sooner ever to join the 1,000-career points club as he posted a career-high 31 points in Oklahoma’s win over TCU, 83-63, on Jan. 18. Two weeks later, on Feb. 1, Manek’s seven made 3-pointers in the Sooners’
82-69 win over Oklahoma State marked another career-high and moved him into the No. 10 spot on Oklahoma’s career 3-pointer list with 171 career makes. While those accomplishments are enough to be proud of, they don’t come as a surprise to Manek and those who have surrounded him on his journey from Harrah’s basketball gym to the Lloyd Noble Center. “As (Brady) grew up, even when he was playing kids a couple years older than him, he could always put the ball in the hole,” Cary said. “It was just a matter of him getting in the right situation and being with see MANEK page 5
Gallery features women artists over 40 Show focuses on art careers pushed aside, begun later in life ABBY TOW @abby_tow
Ginna Dowling was 50 years old when she decided art school was her latest ambition. With one son in high school and a career behind her, she said she found herself hard-pressed to find opportunities for older women artists. That’s why she and Norman Arts Council executive director Erinn Gavaghan created an exhibit for women like her. Norman Art Council’s newest exhibit, “40 Over 40: Women Artists of Oklahoma,” will feature art from 40 Oklahoma women 40 and older at Mainsite Contemporary Art gallery opening on Feb. 14. “There are a lot of things for emerging artists and younger artists,” Dowling said. “I was well over 40 when I went back to school, so that was always a pet peeve of mine.” Gavaghan and Dowling sorted through almost 100 submissions before settling on a body of work they said was representative of their vision. The exhibit will feature several mediums including sculpture, painting and mixed-media art. The namesake of the exhibit in part came from Interstate Highway 40, which runs through the entire state of Oklahoma. This symbolizes the exhibit’s
showcase of artists from all over the state, Gavaghan said. One of those artists, Amanda Boehm-Garcia, is the current outreach coordinator for OU’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Her job involves reaching audiences outside of the immediate OU art community on and off-campus. Boehm-Garcia’s series of floral drawings, “Triptych, In Silence Flowers Speak,” will appear in the exhibit. The drawings are part of her larger work, “Forget Me Knots,” which explores the concept of floriography — a Victorian-era practice where flowers were sent between people to express emotions when it was considered taboo, BoehmGarcia said. Boehm-Garcia grew up in a military family, and through her current job as an outreach coordinator she works with veterans from multiple generations through art-centered programming. She said the series of drawings was inspired by the effects of trauma she witnesses in her work with the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. “You have veterans from Vietnam ... memories that are kind of old. Then I have some post-9/11 veterans that I work with who have just come back from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Boehm-Garcia said. “Talking with those two different groups, but seeing the same ways the trauma affects them — it’s really interesting to me.” This exhibit will be the first all-women showcase
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Paintings done by Liz Roth (left) and Polly Hammett (right) at the Norman Arts Council’s “40 Over 40” women’s art exhibit Jan. 31.
Boehm-Garcia has been featured in. Like many of the women in the exhibit, Boehm-Garcia is also a mother. One of the reasons Gavaghan and Dowling said they created this exhibit was to feature the work of women whose art careers were either pushed aside by, or paired with, motherhood. “Many of these artists, especially the ones who are in their 60s or 70s, they raised families ... that was their job. And so they didn’t have time to go out and present their art to different galleries and things like that,” Gavaghan said. Boehm-Garcia is an artist, mother, wife and professional in the art world. “I think for a lot of the women in the show ... although we may be professional artists, there’s also their own job aspect too, as well as then having to take care of family,” Boehm-Garcia said. “Knowing that everyone in the space is doing the same thing, it’s
really refreshing.” Norman-based fiber artist Darci Lenker’s embroidery piece “Judith Leyster: Self Portrait” will also be featured in “40 Over 40.” The piece is part of a larger series of miniatures Lenker embroidered of famous artworks. “I’ve been involved with (exhibits) that involve all women before, but not to this extent,” Lenker said. “I’m really excited to see the diversity of it ... giving women the recognition that they should get.” Lenker graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a degree in formation arts, and embroidery was something she reserved for embellishments to her other work, she said. But after doing a year-long embroidery challenge where she worked on the craft every day, she said she was hooked. Lenker’s embroidery work varies across subject matter and imagery. Some focus on civil rights activists and feminist figures
such as Ruth Bader Ginsberg and transgender rights activists Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. For Lenker, she said artwork is a means of creating social change. “I’d love to give back in any way I possibly can,” Lenker said. “I can’t contribute financially because I’m a working artist, but I feel like I can use my skills to help try to make the world a better place.” Like all of Mainsite’s new exhibits, “40 Over 40” will be a part of Norman Art Council’s 2nd Friday Art Walk on Feb. 14. The gallery will host a reception that evening for the public, and the exhibit will remain open through March 13. Mainsite is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Abby Tow
abby.tow1@ou.edu