MARY JO MCCONNELL

Mick Jagger once asked Mary Jo if she was the Famous Bower Bird person. Her love of birds and animals started as a young child when her mother would constantly send her outside because of her massive energy. She would fiercely dig for worms; play with bugs, tadpoles and frogs. At a very early age she was drawn to Mother Nature. 

As a child she vacationed with friends and family usually on or near the water. Mary Jo’s expressive examples of “seeing the world differently” developed in her early paintings of harbors, colorful fish, crabs and shells. When she went exploring she found flowers to be exploding with radiant shades of red, blue and green and when mixed created every color known. She spent time teaching blind children art (especially clay) and received a scholarship to New Paltz University in New York for the summer. Her education continued on at Wheaton College where she graduated in 1957 with a B.A. in Art History. 

Mary Jo was with her daughter Alexandra when she happened to discover a baby bird at her front door. She carefully picked the bird up and was struck by its delicate beauty and colorful feathers. This experience sparked her fascination with birds and she began funneling her artistic energy into collecting, breeding and painting birds. Her love of birds is more then just a fascination, she is obsessed. She surrounds herself with the things she loves, even sleeps in a room of living birds (including an African Hornbill named Millie), a butterfly collection, flowers, a fountain and koi pond with real fish. She raises Weavers, small birds resembling finches that creatively weave colorful nests. Mary Jo strongly believes that birds such as the Weaver and Bower are true artists. Her signature work includes paintings of large feathers from various birds.