From bright mesh shirts to bold jewelry pieces, Jones students aren’t afraid to show their personality through attire. Through student-run events such as fashion and art shows, one student is impacting both the school’s fashion and art scene in an unexpected way.

Rachel Dohner ‘18’s high school experience has been defined by the art she’s done at Jones and considers herself an active member or the school’s art scene. After taking copious art classes both in and outside of school, Dohner received a request from a friend.

“I really appreciated Rachel’s artistic style.” said Ellie Sharp ‘18. “I asked her to paint a few of her designs on a pair of jeans. The way she incorporates her ideas into her pieces is really impressive.”

Dohner ended up producing a pair of jeans, embellished with paintings of bees, faces, suns, and trees. She describes her aesthetic as “colorful as well as story-oriented”.

“I use a lot of pink and mustard [yellow,]” Dohner said, “In all art, there’s a narrative that threads through it. A lot of my work is nature-based. I’m mostly thinking about the jeans that I paint. I think I gravitate towards faces and things like that because they aren’t super detailed but they’re all different, which is perfect for painting on pants.”  

As Sharp wore her unique, new garment around school, Dohner received several more requests for one of a kind pieces, coming from far beyond the Jones community.

“It’s really weird, because when I started painting jeans, it was just for a couple of my friends, but then I kept getting more requests,” said Dohner. “I just opened an Etsy shop where I sell painted jeans and also jean jackets, so it’s weird for me to see how this has somehow spiraled into a real business.”

Dohner has enjoyed seeing the impact her art is making on the student community.

“It’s really interesting to be able to see my art on people around Jones,” said Dohner. “This definitely isn’t something I thought I’d be doing, but it’s also really cool to see my work outside of the art community.”

Through a combined six art classes throughout her Jones career, Dohner has become familiar with the group of artists at the school.

“I think [the art community] is getting bigger,” said Dohner. “My AP Studio [Art] class is has almost doubled in size which makes me really happy. I feel like [art] isn’t always the focus in this school and I’d love for it to become more of a focus, especially in class selections. As a community, everyone is really talented and everyone’s art is really concept based and has a lot of thought behind it, which is amazing.”

In terms of her future, Dohner plans on attending an art school with a possible concentration in fashion, something her AP Studio Art teacher things she will excel at.

“I was a teaching assistant at [School of the Art Institute Chicago] and Rachel’s work reminds me of a student [there,]” said AP Studio Art teacher Kat Alice Tae. “ She isn’t afraid to take risks conceptually and in terms of her medium.”