Mint’s new intern adores nature and butterflies and jumping into new things, whether it’s oil painting or drawing or tennis.
Toni Topp jumped into marketing with Mint over the summer and now she’s back as our school year marketing intern.
She will work on marketing and public relations by editing our videos, writing blog posts and creating more social media for Mint Artists Guild and its events and activities.
She acknowledges her duality: very business-like and also very creative and willing to go with the flow. “Most of the time if I don’t have an idea, I just kind of go for it. As I work on it, I get more of an idea,” she said.
Her Dad, Anthony, who continued working after retiring from the Detroit Police Department, taught her her “ambitious side” and to work very hard. And she credits her Grandma for encouraging her creative side, and remembers going to her house when she was younger for creative projects.
She recalls buying her first piece of art because it was so colorful. It’s an oversized giraffe surrounded by purple, blue, pink and green flowers, and it hangs in her bedroom. “It started from there,” she says of her growing collection of art. Among them is a triptych of purple butterflies, a piece she keeps close to her desk.
If Toni weren’t working as our marketing intern, Toni could be in our Learn & Earn program. She is a senior at Farmington High School who likes to paint nature. Sometimes she challenges herself to try to depict something different such as buildings.
“I have an easel and paint and canvases everywhere,” she said of her home office. She also loves dance, and contemporary dance especially, and makes time for it at least once a week.
Yet some friends do not know her as an artist because she’s so focused on school and community projects. She’s part of the Wolverine Pathways program , which likely will lead her to the University of Michigan next year. She expects to major in marketing. Toni said she learned to love the field while working with Mint over the summer.
She created a self portrait and a campaign to highlight our summer workers and an end-of-summer celebration of the four Wolverine Pathways interns contributions (which you can view here).
Mint “allows me to be in a creative space and do something that really matters,” Toni said.
© Vickie Elmer, 2021 for Mint Artists Guild
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