KANSAS CITY, MO — Debbie Barrett-Jones creates art textiles and prints on display in galleries, residences, businesses, hospitals and churches. Her work is viewable in Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Hospital, Truman Medical Center, Community Christian Church, Lead Bank in the Crossroads, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kansas City International Airport terminal, and more. She is the shop manager and gallery attendant at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center. Locally, she crafted a liturgical banner to honor the 50th anniversary of Our Savior Lutheran Church and as a memorial to Joe Gregor and Brian Dale. Dale was not just a dear friend, she says, but an early champion of her artwork.

Parents Charlie and Suzanne moved the family to Marshalltown from Spencer when she was 18 months old — the fourth of five kids. From second to eighth grade, she had a paper route.

“I loved to be able to use that time to escape and think about all the different crafts I wanted to make,” Barrett-Jones said. “I collected pine cones on paper routes and made ‘ugly Christmas wreaths’ with a hot glue gun.”

While she regarded her sister Kristine as the artist in the family, a passion for creating developed at a young age, nurtured by teachers at Marshalltown High School.

“They knew that I compared myself to Kristine, but I was so dedicated to the work that I was doing there, that they would even give me a whole semester working on one watercolor painting,” she noted.

After graduating from MHS in 1998, she attended MCC, where she earned an associates degree. She married high school sweetheart Brandon Jones in 2001. She entered nursing school but soon discovered it was not a good fit. She took a job at Strand’s, a full-service paint and decorating store in Marshalltown. While she stayed only a year in that position, it was an impactful experience.

“My life shifted and changed. My favorite place was the color charts, the paint swatches, and then helping people pick out colors. But I took some of those paint swatches home, with permission, and I started just cutting them up in little pieces, and made paper mosaics and paper collages. I just loved making again,” she said.

With her husband pursuing an English degree from UNI, the couple relocated to Cedar Falls. There, she took employment at an adult daycare, while crafting newspaper mosaics on the side. In 2002, her sister, who was finishing her BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute, suggested she too apply to the school. She was not only accepted, but received scholarships. In the summer of 2003, Barrett-Jones and her husband moved to Kansas City.

“My sister was living above the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center — that really started the Crossroads Art District down here in the late 80s,” she said. “We lived up on the third floor with her, then she moved out to go to graduate school.”

Her first semester at the institute focused on drawing. And although not her favorite artform, she knew she was in the “right place.”

She gravitated toward the textile department, but didn’t get the chance to sew until her junior year.

“I was put in a room full of looms and colored yarn, and my life just changed,” she noted. “The process of weaving just made sense to me, and I just ran with it, and I loved it.”

After one semester of weaving, she was commissioned to create banners at Community Christian Church, a house of worship designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

“I did this whole proposal. To be able to transform a space with something that you’ve made, the whole design, hand dying the yarn and coming up with a pattern, I just loved it, and I knew this was it. This is what I want to do,” she said.

Barrett-Jones gained notice for her scarf making.

“Scarves were always this tool for me to figure out how color and pattern work together, and then I could translate that to my larger pieces,” she explained.

By the end of her junior year, she discovered she was pregnant with daughter Cora. Another daughter, Emma, would follow three years later.

“I was determined to be a mother and an artist no matter what. I graduated with a four-month-old baby (in 2007) and then I was able to get another commission from that church. They actually wanted four other pieces to add to their two existing ones,” she said. “I proposed, how about six new ones for their sanctuary that I would cut up their other ones and put them into their chapel.”

She continued weaving at the art institute that summer, and with the commission money, was able to purchase the loom she works on today. In 2014, she was chosen to create a piece for the Lisa Barth Interfaith Chapel at Children’s Mercy Hospital. She then put together a proposal for a grant to be able to create 200 frame loom kits through an initiative that she started called Healing with Weaving.

“I was able to donate these kits to Children’s Mercy Hospital that provide for staff and patients and their family members,” she added.

Healing with Weaving continues, and she donates the kits to various organizations.

“Being creative, working with my hands, was always a way for me to escape and to work through some stuff. It’s such a healing process when you’re making,” she said.

Barrett-Jones went back to school and earned a MFA from the University of Kansas in 2023, with full ride scholarships. She taught weaving there, plus a professional practice class at the Kansas City Art Institute. She teaches weaving workshops at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center and resides in Shawnee, Kansas.

KANSAS CITY, MO — Debbie Barrett-Jones creates art textiles and prints on display in galleries, residences, businesses, hospitals and churches. Her work is viewable in Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Hospital, Truman Medical Center, Community Christian Church, Lead Bank in the Crossroads, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kansas City International Airport terminal, and more. She is the shop manager and gallery attendant at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center. Locally, she crafted a liturgical banner to honor the 50th anniversary of Our Savior Lutheran Church and as a memorial to Joe Gregor and Brian Dale. Dale was not just a dear friend, she says, but an early champion of her artwork.

Parents Charlie and Suzanne moved the family to Marshalltown from Spencer when she was 18 months old — the fourth of five kids. From second to eighth grade, she had a paper route.

“I loved to be able to use that time to escape and think about all the different crafts I wanted to make,” Barrett-Jones said. “I collected pine cones on paper routes and made ‘ugly Christmas wreaths’ with a hot glue gun.”

While she regarded her sister Kristine as the artist in the family, a passion for creating developed at a young age, nurtured by teachers at Marshalltown High School.

“They knew that I compared myself to Kristine, but I was so dedicated to the work that I was doing there, that they would even give me a whole semester working on one watercolor painting,” she noted.

After graduating from MHS in 1998, she attended MCC, where she earned an associates degree. She married high school sweetheart Brandon Jones in 2001. She entered nursing school but soon discovered it was not a good fit. She took a job at Strand’s, a full-service paint and decorating store in Marshalltown. While she stayed only a year in that position, it was an impactful experience.

“My life shifted and changed. My favorite place was the color charts, the paint swatches, and then helping people pick out colors. But I took some of those paint swatches home, with permission, and I started just cutting them up in little pieces, and made paper mosaics and paper collages. I just loved making again,” she said.

With her husband pursuing an English degree from UNI, the couple relocated to Cedar Falls. There, she took employment at an adult daycare, while crafting newspaper mosaics on the side. In 2002, her sister, who was finishing her BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute, suggested she too apply to the school. She was not only accepted, but received scholarships. In the summer of 2003, Barrett-Jones and her husband moved to Kansas City.

“My sister was living above the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center — that really started the Crossroads Art District down here in the late 80s,” she said. “We lived up on the third floor with her, then she moved out to go to graduate school.”

Her first semester at the institute focused on drawing. And although not her favorite artform, she knew she was in the “right place.”

She gravitated toward the textile department, but didn’t get the chance to sew until her junior year.

“I was put in a room full of looms and colored yarn, and my life just changed,” she noted. “The process of weaving just made sense to me, and I just ran with it, and I loved it.”

After one semester of weaving, she was commissioned to create banners at Community Christian Church, a house of worship designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

“I did this whole proposal. To be able to transform a space with something that you’ve made, the whole design, hand dying the yarn and coming up with a pattern, I just loved it, and I knew this was it. This is what I want to do,” she said.

Barrett-Jones gained notice for her scarf making.

“Scarves were always this tool for me to figure out how color and pattern work together, and then I could translate that to my larger pieces,” she explained.

By the end of her junior year, she discovered she was pregnant with daughter Cora. Another daughter, Emma, would follow three years later.

“I was determined to be a mother and an artist no matter what. I graduated with a four-month-old baby (in 2007) and then I was able to get another commission from that church. They actually wanted four other pieces to add to their two existing ones,” she said. “I proposed, how about six new ones for their sanctuary that I would cut up their other ones and put them into their chapel.”

She continued weaving at the art institute that summer, and with the commission money, was able to purchase the loom she works on today. In 2014, she was chosen to create a piece for the Lisa Barth Interfaith Chapel at Children’s Mercy Hospital. She then put together a proposal for a grant to be able to create 200 frame loom kits through an initiative that she started called Healing with Weaving.

“I was able to donate these kits to Children’s Mercy Hospital that provide for staff and patients and their family members,” she added.

Healing with Weaving continues, and she donates the kits to various organizations.

“Being creative, working with my hands, was always a way for me to escape and to work through some stuff. It’s such a healing process when you’re making,” she said.

Barrett-Jones went back to school and earned a MFA from the University of Kansas in 2023, with full ride scholarships. She taught weaving there, plus a professional practice class at the Kansas City Art Institute. She teaches weaving workshops at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center and resides in Shawnee, Kansas.

Her upcoming events include:

June 2026 — Woven Together: Community Landscape Collaborative Art Project, Greenlease Gallery, Rockhurst University, Kansas City (In conjunction with the World Cup)

2027 — Solo Exhibition, Greenlease Gallery, Rockhurst University, Kansas City

2027 — Solo Exhibition, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Kansas City

2028 — Solo Exhibition, 108 Contemporary Gallery, Tulsa, OK

The piece made for Our Savior is called “Shades of Blue with Gold on Pale Blue” and is a hand-woven textile made with hand-dyed Tencel and gold bamboo yarn on a 16-harness loom.

To learn more, visit: www.debbiebarrettjones.com.