Wolfe selling paintings Friday to fund college

Bare Bones Cargo is allowing a local college student to sell about 30 of her paintings on Friday in order to help fund her education.
Rhonda Williams, a co-owner of Bare Bones Cargo of 526 19th St. W in Jasper, said Mary Ann Wolfe, 19, of Jasper will display her works from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“She’s a good artist,” Williams said Monday. “It’s paintings on canvas. She does like angels and churches. Her work is real neat.”
“Her paintings are already displayed in our store. She’s going to make a whole bunch of new ones this week for her showing. All the money she makes from selling her paintings will go toward paying for her education … We just need to get behind her as a community and help her.”
Williams described Wolfe as “kind and compassionate, has a determination that she wants to finish her college education, but she wants to pay for it. She is not asking for a handout. She’s asking for people to purchase something that she’s worked hard on.
“I admire her for that. Most people would just come in and ask for a handout. She wants to work and produce something and try to sell something.” She said Wolf wants to put in an effort to raise the money she needs.
Asked to explain her paintings, Williams said, “It catches me as inspirational. It speaks to me spiritually. Her paintings are very calm and soothing,” she said.
As a result, she said that while people may want to buy a painting as a gift for themselves, some may wish to purchase a painting to give to those in local nursing homes or assisted living homes. The store is willing to wrap up the gift.
“The prices are like from $10 to $40, so they are not expensive,” she said, saying they range from small to large ones. “I think she has got a couple of 16 by 20s,” Williams said.
Wolfe said Monday that she graduated in 2017 from Walker High School in Jasper (now Jasper High School) and will be a sophomore at Wallace State Community College this fall.
“I have a couple of nativity scenes and I like to paint angles and things of that sort,” she said. “I do other stuff, too, but mostly faith-based stuff.”
She said she took art lessons when she was a small child, but she left it and only restarted working on paintings back this summer.
Wolfe confirmed the revenue would go to her college education, noting she also gets assistance from her tennis scholarship at Wallace State.