Ask Lyn: Let’s talk about the artwork
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Dear Lyn:
Over the holidays, I received several different communications from The Watershed Foundation that coordinated and really got my attention! The colors and style were so soft and soothing. I absolutely loved the artwork and wondered if you could tell me more about it? Was it created locally?
Signed, Wondering Wendy
Dear Wendy,
Yes, this art was created locally and especially for The Watershed Foundation by a member of our staff — our TWF Communications Coordinator, Jennifer Zartman Romano. We’ve had quite a few people ask about Jennifer’s work, so we thought it might be a good idea to tell you more about it!
Jennifer is almost always painting or creating something – so it was a wonderful surprise when she offered to create and provide a few of her watercolor paintings for TWF’s end-of-year communications pieces, adding softness and beauty to the messages. Jennifer said she was inspired to create these pieces as we talked about the future wetland area being created in partnership with Zimmer Biomet, the City of Warsaw, TWF and others. She visualized what it might one day look like and took paintbrush to paper one evening to bring the image in her mind’s eye to life. Everything else blossomed from there!
An interesting aspect of the paintings was that Jennifer created them using a special set of watercolor paints made from soil-based pigments. We thought it was especially poignant that her art depicting this watershed project literally used water and soil – elements that are a critical focus of the work we do!
In addition to our Thanksgiving message, you might have noticed that our Christmas and New Year’s messages also featured watercolor paintings created by Jennifer.
Jennifer is a lifelong resident of Whitley County. She and her family have a cottage at Loon Lake in the upper portion of our watershed. When she’s not writing and doing graphic design projects for The Watershed Foundation, she is the owner of Indigo Studio, teaches private art lessons and art classes, and does commissioned artwork. She is president of the Columbia City Arts Commission, publicity chair for the Fort Wayne Artists Guild, and was selected by the Indiana Arts Commission for the 2023-24 On-Ramp for Artist Entrepreneurs. She’s currently working on a project funded by the Indiana Arts Commission that combines her writing and art to create some very unique greeting cards.
