Influenced and encouraged by the sweet Southern women that raised her, Dwelia Townsend Haas calls herself a "story telling painter." She remembers being able to visually imagine the birds and wild animals in the stories that her Mama and Grandmas shared with her when she was growing up in Jones County.

Drawing and story telling has always been a part of her life, and now she draws with mainly colors of blue in her own style of painting to tell stories of the creatures that share her Mississippi home. Every since Haas was young, she wanted to be an art teacher and a Mama. After graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1983 with a BFA degree in Arts Education, Dwelia started teaching art in the Jones County School System. She later married Nicholas Mcleod Haas, Jr. from Bay St. Louis, and they were blessed with one son, Nicholas Quentin Haas.

Dwelia is the featured artist at Justduit Again in Bay St. Louis, and Dwelia illustrated Kristen Twedt's "My Crazy Catastrophe Cat" children's book series. She sells prints of a few of her paintings, and with every print comes a story. Dwelia feels like that is her way of continuing the Southern storytelling tradition.