Bio
Originally from Kane, Pennsylvania, Mary Jones built her career in Chicago. Permanent collections include the Linda Lee Alter Collection of Women in the Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and in the State Museum of Illinois in both Chicago and Springfield. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Ragdale Foundation, Knox College, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Foundation, and at Anchor Graphics, Chicago. She was named an Iowa Arts Council Fellow in 2018, and a notable artist in New American Paintings, Midwest Edition #134. Jones has an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University at Bloomington and a BFA in Art History from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She currently lives and works in Indianola, Iowa.
Contact
Artist Statement
I walk. I find the story in the walk. I consider the shape of the walk and how it shapes me, my thinking, my sense of place. And then I map out the wilderness of that space layering drawings, writing, and ephemera gathered along the way. My work is cartographic, yet the figure dominates. Who are these people who embody the mood of my walks? They are both rambler and scribe, seeker and storyteller. Feelings are worn on their exteriors.
I am interested in how the act of mapping out the space of a walk embodies the particularities of perspective—visual, cultural, and emotional. Describing a place tells us not only where but also who we are.
