Poster Artist - Madison's Aletha Jones

Each year, Lakefront Festival of Arts selects an artist to create a singular poster to represent and promote the year’s event. For 2006, Madison-based Aletha Jones was selected, and she created the watercolor painting "Expanding One’s Frame of Mind" specifically for the festival poster.
The harlequin featured on the poster was inspired by the classical character of Arlecchino from the Commedia dell’Arte troupes of the early Italian Renaissance. These Italian street performers donned masks to complement their acrobatic skills in acting out their improvised scenarios, says Jones.

"My figures have long been the jesters of my private theater, and they have been greatly influenced by my travels to Italy," she says. "The wordplay of the title echoes the satire and wit of Arlecchino and his little masked dog. Using a simple prop, with one single gesture of superb skill and timing, these two performers cleverly accomplish their pun of expanding one’s frame of mind."

Jones grew up on a small farm in Indiana, where her first models were the often uncooperative dairy cows. She went on to earn a master of fine arts degree from Bowling Green State University. She taught studio art courses for several universities in Indiana and Ohio prior to moving to her current home in Madison. Watercolor has been the dominant medium in her work for the past 20 years.

"I choose watercolor because I find real joy in it," Jones explains. "It has such simplicity: the interaction of pigment and water. I feel at home with it yet am continually surprised by its diverse capacities. I develop my paintings with transparent layers, a carry-over technique from my years as an oil painter." (Scott R. Weinberger)