She studied painting and drawing at the Museum of Modern Art, printmaking at the New School for Social Research and received a master's degree in Art/Sculpture in 1977 at Vermont's Goddard College.

[8] Maynard was artist-in-residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem where she was a part of a group exhibition Labor, Love, Live Collection in Context,[9] held between November 2007 and March 2008.

The head is a prominent part in many of Maynard's figures, and references the distorted quality of African art work made by the Igbo or Yoruba people.

[citation needed] In January 1977, Maynard was part of a contingent of hundreds of African-American artists who represented the North American Zone, exhibiting in FESTAC 77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria.

"[12] Myanard was also the subject of a 1975 short documentary called Valerie: A Woman, An Artist, A Philosophy of Life directed by Black female feminist independent filmmaker Monica J. Freeman.