About the Artist

Mary Jo Bowers made her first quilt in 1970 from a kit knowing nothing about appliqué, quilting, basting or putting it together.  Yet it somehow got done and the family used it until it was totally worn out.  It was not until the 1981 that she made a quilt again.   This evolved into her contemporary pieces representing her emotional response to her physical and spiritual environment.

Her present work is characterized by bold colors, shapes and dimensions using artist dyed and commercial over-dyed fabrics, painted fabric and scraps from various venues including sari shops, thrift stores upholstery shops and friends used garments. She uses a fusible web to piece together a variety of fabrics including but not limited to cottons, silks, polyesters and wools. With a color and schematic idea in mind she pulls out fabrics that complement and highlight each other including zingers, darks and lights, complementary and secondary color variations which will add interest, movement and life to the piece. While the fabrics dance on the cutting table, she cuts freehand with a rotary cutter. It is an intuitive process that takes her on a journey with the destination unknown. Her pre-conceived notions of the final outcome are changed so frequently during the process that early notes would not always describe the end art quilt. The separate pieces are pinned, taken down, re-pined and repositioned many times before they are finally assembled using a fusible web. When she is satisfied that the piece is right, she finishes it with machine and/or hand embroidery.

Since 2008 she has concentrated on more abstract images including distressed buildings and barns that weathered the times, landscapes influenced by traveling and destruction wrought by wars.

She has had several solo shows and participated in many large quilt shows and multi-media art shows throughout the United States and France.  She has many ribbons for her work and has been published in several books.

Mary Jo has a Masters degree in Social Work and did family counseling in schools and hospitals for many years until she became a realtor in 1976.  During those years she attended classes and workshops to hone her quilting and embroidery skills.  She has now retired from these careers to spend fulltime with her quilting except for regular days when she is grandma to her grandchildren.  She also volunteers for the National Association of Mental Illness.  She and her husband Norm live in Chicago.