Mary Jo Major was born in Edmonton, Alberta and since then she has traveled widely. In Australia she taught and studied painting at the Melbourne Institute of Technology. In Indonesia she learned the art of batik, then studied at the Ècole des Beaux Arts, Aix-en-Provence, subsequently earning her BFA at Concordia University, Montreal, Quèbec. In 1992 she received her MFA from the University of Calgary.