Cool Bear

Cool Bear, 23" x 32". Punched with Karakul wool on monk’s cloth. Designed by Courtney Mayo and punched by Kathy Donovan, Bluemont, Virginia, 2017.

Family history has a profound impact on our lives. It is from my father’s work as a corporate attorney for the Isaly Company that I learned to love polar bears. During the 1930s and ’40s the Pittsburgh-based Isaly company undertook expansion. My father, John Paul Jones, helped families open their own franchises in towns across Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana.  And Dad submitted the patent application for the Isaly Dairy Klondike Bar—yes, that iconic bar, a childhood favorite, in many flavors that you still enjoy today. He loved visiting farms and a favorite family story is that he once drove home with a pony in the back of a convertible.