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.
