Artist Krista M. Jones, who also paints under the name “Jonesy,” recently invited me to visit her studio at the East Point home she shares with her wife, Corinna. She told me a bit about her story, and how she became a full-time artist.  

“The growth has directly come from authentic connections,” said Jones. She has come a long way as an artist since her early days painting on scraps of wood on the streets of Little Five Points. At the time she was still in the grips of addiction to alcohol and drugs, and she was struggling to make ends meet. 

Eventually she left Atlanta and got sober, later returning in 2015 and essentially starting over from ground zero. “I came back to a city that almost killed me, and really just decided that I am going to figure out a way to do this,” she said, gesturing at the artwork on the walls around her. 

Though she has always known she’s an artist, what that means to Jones has changed throughout the years. Back in the 1990s she was one of only two female tattoo artists working in Dallas, Texas. Later, she worked as a graphic designer for about thirteen years. Ultimately the corporate environment didn’t suit Jones who eventually made the leap into art. 

In 2016, Jones completed her first mural on a utility box in Decatur. “At that moment, I decided to call myself a muralist,” she recalled. 

Years prior, she had done some graffiti in San Francisco, but she hadn’t really considered how to make money from public art and murals. She proceeded to immerse herself into the local mural scene by volunteering, taking courses, contributing resources, and trying to figure it all out. All told, she was in that exploratory phase for about two years.

“Being a full time artist is not for the faint of heart,” she said with a laugh. “Looking back in retrospect, my years of resilience and persistence have helped me get to where I am right now. Also not being afraid of rejection, because being an artist comes with a lot of rejection and you have to brush it off and move on quickly.” 

In the years since, Jones has been working on building her network of artists and creative enterprises around the city. In addition to canvas paintings which are shown in gallery and museum exhibitions, she has also continued honing her craft as a muralist. 

Over time, those essential connections she built led her to working with city entities and nonprofits. She said the process of working with governmental bodies teaches her patience and she actually enjoys the complexities of projects that include partnerships with departments of transportation and other city entities. 

“It’s super rewarding,” she told me. “I am very structure-oriented even though I work for myself and all my paintings look a little chaotic, they are actually all very mapped out.” Though the path from ideation to completion can be quite exhaustive – when everything from the placement of a mural, the symbolism within it, and even the specific way color appears on a wall versus a screen require approval from multiple entities – she says the process feels good to her brain. 

“I’m not exactly sure how I found myself in a niche of working with city governments,” mused Jones. “If you had asked me 8 years ago if that’s what I wanted to do I would have said, ‘I don’t think so.’ But it has evolved to become that and I think that it allows me to be in spaces that I might not otherwise be able to engage with.”

For Jones, her paintings and murals are just one facet of her desire to create her own reality. After she got sober she made a conscious choice to build a life that is “art-centric, art-focused, and expression-focused.” 

Jones calls herself an outward processor, and says she uses art, music, and her words to express and process her experience. She is fascinated with people and the way human brains function. She often thinks about how humans are inextricably linked not just to one another but to nature and the world at large as well. 

Musically, Jones was a part of the local experimental noise scene in the early 2000s. She still plays with music sometimes, but not in a professional capacity. Jones creates musical accompaniments for her promotional videos and sometimes collaborates with other musicians. Jones told me she enjoys exploring where her visual art and music intersect. She has even experimented with projecting her artwork on the bodies of contemporary dancers, which offers some exciting potential for future evolutions of her work. 

One similarity between the various means of expression in Jones’ career is layering. Her paintings on canvas often incorporate past works that have been painted over, which started out of necessity and soon became a conscious practice. 

Whenever she starts a new mural she starts with a heart underneath the paint, and often hides symbols or images in her compositions. 

“There’s a beauty in that kind of layering, and it’s a reflection of the human experience,” explained Jones. “We build on all of our experiences.” 

She says that adding the heart in particular is a simple way to infuse her works with love. “By putting a little extra love behind it, I really believe that the intention we put in our artwork on a canvas or a wall, it radiates. People can feel that.”

And for Jones, radiating energy is important. She’s also an energy practitioner, a reiki master, and a medium. Most of her friends know that she has been sensitive in that way since she was a child. At times, those inclinations were powerful and disturbing to Jones, which is part of why she used to numb herself with substances. Now, art is how she processes and finds catharsis.

“Art is not only a way to engage with other people, it’s also a way to connect with myself deeper. Having art or music be the conduit for that is fascinating. It really bridges the gap between language and culture, and levels the playing field so to speak.”

While Jones’ murals are typically heavily stylized, her canvas works offer her room to explore looser concepts like the cycle of life, personal perception, freedom, death, and other complexities of the human condition. With a mural, she feels compelled to keep the subject matter light and draws connections with the nature around the site. When working on a canvas, she is free to lean into her intuitive side, and she loses herself in the creative process. 

Some elements that make repeated appearances in her works are birds and intersecting, organic lines. Someone observing the linework in her paintings might draw a connection to vines, bridges, or aerial views, but it would be just as valid to look inward and see representations of ventricle systems and neural pathways in the human body. 

In speaking about her personal journey, Jones is also open about her queerness and her sobriety. “Representation matters,” said Jones, who reminded me that it’s important to show others that they belong, that they can change their lives, and that existing in their bodies just as they are is essential. And while she is undeniably a talented artist, her success is also due to her resilience and defiant personality that has helped her overcome the various challenges she has faced.

These days, Jones is preparing to embark on a number of large-scale mural projects, including the Midtown Bike Lane Barrier Mural Project that was announced by the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) just yesterday. 

Jones has collaborated with the Midtown community, ATLDOT, and OCA to develop a vibrant mural which will be painted on 300 concrete bike lane barriers spanning 9,500 feet. Beginning October 19, the community will aid in painting the mural during community painting sessions on weekends through mid-November. Once completed, the barrier will be installed along 10th Street between Piedmont Avenue and Monroe Drive. 

Jones also recently completed her biggest mural to date, “Synchronicity,” which comes in at an incredible 11,000 square feet and is one of the largest in the metro-Atlanta area. The mural now adorns the I-85 Underpass at Sugarloaf Parkway and was completed in collaboration with the Sugarloaf Community Improvement District and The Hudgens Center for Art & Learning. 

“I’m in this for the long game,” said Jones. “I am not looking to gain big success overnight; I don’t think that’s sustainable. When I say I’m in it for the long game I just mean like this is not just my career, it’s my life. I don’t separate the two. It’s part of how I process the world. No matter what, I’m an artist.”