Think you can’t paint? Get inspired by Jenn Aither as you join her in creating a giant community canvas at Town Square’s Interactive Open House on June 5 from 10-Noon. After wanting to be an artist since she was three years old, and spending her career building her Aither State Farm Agency (A Platinum Sponsor of Town Square’s Major 2021 Events), Jenn in the past few years has decided to go for it. She’d painted off and on for some time, but really dove in (“I apparently have a lot to say.”) when she bought a home in Green Lake. 

“I like to paint big,” she says, “I feel less inhibited that way.” Indeed, she has become known for her giant, abstract and vibrantly-colored pieces. With her home full of her paintings, and about to go on to month two of her Town Square Lobby exhibit, Jenn is, well….prolific. 

“Now I just have to figure out what to do with them.”

Sometimes she paints over a work. She often writes things on the canvas under her paintings, or tells a story on the painting in layers. “You can even put in political messages and paint over them, and no one knows they’re there.” 

Jenn says she never has any idea what a painting will turn out like when she starts, but if she writes words first, that’s the inspiration that gets her going. With no formal art training, she says that she reaches back to her childhood, to the teachers that encouraged and inspired creativity: Lettie Wallenfang, Mr. Frank in Ripon and Bud Larson in high school. All of them, she says, celebrated her love of the abstract.

So...if you’ve ever thought about painting, or if you’ve NEVER thought about painting, Jenn is the person who can set your mind free and give you the courage you need. Grab one of her brushes, fill it with paint, and join her at the Interactive Open House to take part in an original creation!

Editor’s Note: Aren’t insurance people supposed to be boring????? Not so much, this one.