Sunday, October 31, 2021

Member Spotlight November 2021: Jeanne Maher

Jeanne Maher was born in Delaware and moved to NC in 1993.  She met her husband, Austin, in 1994 and got married in 1996.  They have two sons, Austin Robert (19) and Liam (14).  Jeanne is trained in medical billing and bookkeeping but stopped working to stay at home with her kids.

Creativity runs in her family: Jeanne’s dad was an architect, her mother was an artist and art teacher, and her sister is a quilter.  As a child, Jeanne loved to color and always had the biggest box of crayons. Her mother went to college to get an art teaching degree when Jeanne was four, and she remembers sitting alongside her mother as they worked in parallel on whatever art homework she had been assigned.  When her mother was taking a pottery class, Jeanne remembers making a clay pot of rolled spirals inside a saucepan that she glazed purple.  She also enjoyed making Papier Mache with her mother and did a lot of sewing as a tween until athletics took her free time starting in middle school. 

Jeanne got hooked on beading in the late 1990s, when her friend, Elizabeth Lyne, who is now a fine craft jeweler, started holding a monthly Beading Bee. The projects progressed from making wine charms on memory wire to earrings and necklaces and lead to her joining Capital Area Beading Organization in 2003. Jeanne held several positions with CABO including newsletter editor, a brief stint as Treasurer, President-Elect, and eventually President through December 2006. During her time as President, she initiated the formation of a guild library, worked to gain the guild’s nonprofit status, collaborated with Jane’s Fiber and Bead show to provide classes at its Raleigh show, brought in national bead artists for classes, and spearheaded enhancements to the bylaws.

     

Jeanne continued developing beading skills until early 2009, when she went with a friend to Askew-Taylor and saw her first jar of Mod Podge since doing art projects with her mom in the 1970s. (She recalls “I felt like her spirit blew right through me!”)  A few weeks later, Jeanne bought a raffle ticket during a quick trip to Jerry’s, and she won a 2-day collage workshop with Sharon DiGiulio. After that class, Jeanne was hooked and took many workshops in collage, acrylic painting, art journaling, book altering, and mixed media at Jerry’s. Along with Sharon, some of her teachers were Ophelia Staton, Michelle Davis Petelinz, and Jodie Ohl, to name a few. For her 50th birthday, Jeanne hired local artist Ophelia Staton to come to her house and teach an art journal workshop for her and five friends. It was the best birthday to date!

In 2015, Jeanne was invited by Elizabeth Lyne to join the board of Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild, a 501(c)3 arts nonprofit, where she served as a member of the Friends of the Guild Committee. She was part of a team responsible for recruiting and retaining supporters, planning and executing the Friends of the Guild reception at the annual craft market, and writing copy for Friends literature. Jeanne became Secretary in 2016 and elected Treasurer in 2017.  When the Executive Director move on at the end of 2017, Jeanne took over her duties as well. Falling into this roll inspired her to enroll in the Duke Nonprofit Management Certificate Program. Still acting as Executive Director, Jeanne was voted President in 2019 and will hold that office through the end of 2021.  The 50th anniversary show was held in 2019, but COVID forced the cancellation of the 2020 show. Unable to recover financially, the Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild unfortunately will be forced to dissolve by the end of the year. 

As a collector of fine craft and advocate for visual arts, Jeanne was devastated at the loss of this unique event in our community.  After 6+ years of volunteering, she was relieved to get back to being more present for her family and enjoying her own art. Jeanne recently started following mixed media collage artist Elizabeth St. Hilaire and has learned a lot from her gel plate printing videos as well as her Fabulous Florals online class held in May-June 2021. Jeanne is inspired to do more with gel printing.

Jeanne joined CMMAG in July 2009.  She is looking forward to in-person CMMAG, getting to know new members, and enjoying the wonderful programs the guild hosts. 

  




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