Jenna Johnson is shown with her husband Dr. Aaron Johnson and their son Spencer in the new courtyard area at the 10 Talents Art Center and Event Center. There is still a little painting left to be done on the walls.

It was roughly four years ago that Jenna Johnson and her family realized a dream when her 10 Talents Art Center opened up in the former Central Graphics building on 14th Street in Blue Earth.

She had spent over a year of hard work turning the former printing plant into a beautiful art center. It has been used for art and music lessons and many other things.

That was in December of 2020. After that she completed the work of also converting the back area into an event center, as well. It too, has been used for large events from banquets and weddings to other kinds of private and public events.

Now, Johnson, with some help from her husband Dr. Aaron Johnson, have started on a new area of the art center.

The outside.

“We started on creating an outdoor space last year and continued on it this summer,” Jenna says. “We put up the decorative fence, added planters and planted a grass area.”

That part is still under construction. They plan to add lights along the fence, build a patio and add a lot of outdoor furniture – for entertaining al fresco.

Then Jenna decided to make it really special, and paint the outside wall of the building to add to the look of the outdoor space.

And that did not mean just painting the wall a nice color. Jenna decided to put her artistic talent to use and began to paint a mural across the entire area.

“Someone donated some windows to us, so we attached those to the walls for the look we wanted,” Jenna says. “Sometimes people are inside and wonder where the windows are inside the event center.”

There are no windows inside as the windows don’t go through the walls and are only for decoration on the outside.

She decided on a castle style look, with some water fountains and ponds added in, as well.

They started in early October and Jenna was determined to get it done before she had a scheduled hip replacement surgery, which was just a couple of weeks ago.

“I was willing to work at night, and we even brought in lights and we worked as much as I could,” she says. “But, I didn’t quite make it.”

Now it is too cold for outside painting, and besides, she is recovering from that hip replacement surgery.

“I will finish it this spring,” she says. “There is some of the larger wall yet to do, and some of the shorter wall, which will have more water area added.”

She says she has been getting lots and lots of comments about the new mural.

“It has gotten a lot of attention, and people like it,” she says. “I think it will really work well as a beautiful outdoor space for any event, or just as part of a larger event inside.”

Now a lot of folks can see some of Jenna Johnson’s art when they drive by on 14th Street, or attend an event at 10 Talents Art Center.

And, if you want to see more of Jenna’s art creations, you can check them out at the Winnebago Area Museum.

She is the featured artist in the museum’s local artist room for the next two months.