Hi, I'm Ethan Leners 👋

• long-time people pleaser
• advocate for accessibility
• disciple of good design
• dedicated problem solver
• habitual list-maker

I live and work in Des Moines, IA with my husband Michael Leners.

My Etsy Store

♥️ Make Little Rainbows ♥️

I’ve been telling stories with words and pictures since I could hold a crayon. As a kid, my mom read books like “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” over and over again. Now, I’m looking forward to telling stories to my own children!

My partner and I are planning a family and since we’re unable to have our own biological children together, we are pursuing surrogacy.* Cost of surrogacy can range from $90,000-$130,000! That is an intimidating number, so we decided to start a shop selling products that feature my original illustrations inspired by the childrens’ books I love.

Your support means everything to us. Let’s Make Little Rainbows, together! Your purchases, likes, and reviews much appreciated.

*Why not adoption or fostering, you ask? We’re pursuing these options too!

My Practice

I am a designer, writer, and educator. I have both a BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. If you are interested, you can check out my Art Portfolio.

I am invested in the narrative. I am specifically interested in textual and visual speculative fictions; these include hard science fiction translated into poetry, abstracted auto-biographical landscapes, narrative text painting, and others. My practice is primarily positioned between painting and writing. Within the discourse of painting, I am generally concerned with abstraction and more specifically concerned with text painting and artists’ books. Within the discourse of writing, I am oriented by lyric poetry, German Romanticism, and speculative fiction.