My Story
It started with her children and a box of wax strings.
While they played, Mari Jae experimented — bending the colorful, pliable craft material into figures. What began as casual observation became a technique, and eventually an entire body of work. The wax strings were not incidental. They were the point.
She builds each figure by hand: layering strings into a torso, two legs, a posture, a personality. Then she photographs them under directional chiaroscuro lighting — strong, raking illumination that falls across the figure the way light fell across subjects in Caravaggio or Vermeer. The shadows are real. The depth is real. Then she paints them in oil.
The technique sits at an intersection that no one else occupies: Old Masters lighting. Children's craft material. Comic book word bubbles. Figurative oil painting. Each element is borrowed from a different tradition. Together they produce something that belongs to none of them.
Mari Jae studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, le Faculté de Lettres, and Indiana University. She held her first solo exhibition in Aix-en-Provence, France. Her work has been shown in museums and galleries in France, Indiana, and Massachusetts, and is held in private collections across the United States, France, and Switzerland. She has been featured in Average Art Magazine (UK) and has been interviewed by New York press. She was a candidate for Bravo's Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.
She works from her studio at Art Oasis Natick, Massachusetts — a creative hub she co-founded that is open to visitors, students, and collectors.
Commission inquiries, exhibition loans, and press requests:
Statement
Profound, but not confusing; invoking emotion but not underestimating the Viewer’s intelligence; exploring all possibilities but never straying too far from certainty (or creating new certainties). Using perceived frivolity to make us think about society, politics, relationships and life is my primary focus. I work with wax strings. I use them to create colorful, whimsical people and then they become the subjects of my paintings. The painted figures have a lot of dimension and really pop off the canvas. They are fanciful on one hand and cutting on the other. They are smile invoking and thought provoking. They are gibberish and sharply communicative.
After I sculpt the figures out of wax strings, I set them up in bright light with dramatic shadows. This is a nod to the historical standard of oil painting mastery - the capturing of light. Even though I’m working in a contemporary way, I pride myself on referencing the traditional ideals of a “perfect painting.” In addition, I’m also inspired by the communication techniques that I see used in the graphic novels and comic books that my kids read. Merging history with the contemporary is how I approach my compositions. As a result, my paintings are dimensional and vibrant, each of them featuring figures who express themselves using thought bubbles and word bubbles. Adding this as a way for the figures to communicate is how I bridge the gap between silliness and statement. It’s how innocent figures help us explore complex ideas. For example, I might have one male figure saying the word “talk” standing next to a female figure thinking the word “action.”
I happened upon wax strings while playing with my children. They were experimenting and deeply engaged with making and stacking shapes all the while completely uninterested in what I was doing. So, I experimented. Then I painted. My goal with these is to delight and confuse and to make people stop and consider statement-making art in a new way!
Bio
Artist Mari Jae had her first solo show in Aix-en-Provence, FRANCE and gained valuable inspiration and education there. That solo show led to others in museums and galleries in Indiana and Massachusetts. Her contemporary style has evolved from study at the Art Institute of Chicago, le Faculte de Lettres and Indiana University. She auditioned for Work of Art: The Next Great Artist and painted at a live auction. A reporter in New York interviewed her and she’s been featured in several publications. The most recent of which was Average Art, a British based arts magazine. Mari Jae Artist work can be found in US private collections from Chicago and Indiana to New England, as well as private collections across the globe, including France and Switzerland.
