about.

about me.

My name is Mary Jones and I am a retired art teacher living in northern Wisconsin.  I had a wonderful career in the visual arts for 32 years, teaching students in grades first through twelfth. Upon retirement, my husband and I moved to Minong, WI, to a small cabin on a lake, where we vacationed for many years when our two boys were young. I am thrilled to be now living in my "happy place."  I often find myself using north woods wildlife and scenery as subject matter for my art as well as  my sons' photos, taken on some of their many trips and adventures.  Their love of nature and respect for our planet makes me a very proud mom.  

​

I currently have my work for sale at Arts in Hand Gallery, in Spooner, Wisconsin and Dovetail Cafe and Marketplace in Duluth, MN.  

​

​

​

In high school, I was introduced to batik,  which involves decorating fabric with patterns using a wax-resist dyeing technique. The process of waxing areas and dipping in colored dye is repeated many times, and only clear wax is used for the resist.  During my years as an art teacher, I experimented with this process and came up with a technique that uses  melted crayons as the resist in an encaustic painting fashion and the waxed fabric is only dipped in dye a single time to create the veining effects associated with traditional batik.  The final step is to iron off the wax in between layers of fabric.  I find this to be the MAGIC; the crayon has fused into the fabric and the crackles appear.  The vibrant colors and unpredictable results fuel my passion for this very unique artistic process!