When York Suburban students think of Downtown York, very few would think of art. A few of York Suburban’s National Art Honor Society members were selected to paint parking barriers to brighten up the city.
The students left the morning of Nov. 12 to “brighten up York City,” said junior Ashleigh Mackin.
Senior Colleen Dommel added that the goal of the project “was to open the community’s eyes to art in our everyday life. Personally, my goal was to beautify something that would have otherwise been overlooked.”
The idea was thought of by senior NAHS member Geron Countess, whose family also helped by cleaning and priming them a few days before, said Dommel.
The process started with the idea getting sent to Parliament downtown, where it was approved, and students had to sketch a design.
Out of these sketches, a few were selected in about a week, and those students were given permission slips to go into the city.
Mackin decided to brighten up the city with “an abstract design using a lot of color.” Dommel said her design was “a bunch of Black-Eyed Susan’s overlapping in front of a bright blue background. It was very bright and cheery.”
The process of painting the parking barriers was the hardest part. Mackin claims painting on paper is a lot easier than painting on a parking barrier.
Dommel went further and said, “it was extremely bumpy and had many cavities where the paint would sink in completely and make the lines of the painting look lumpy.”
To counteract this, Dommel said she was forced to be very careful with her lines and her colors were very vibrant. She also said, “Even though my design was one of the simplest on paper, I ended up needing everyone else to help me complete my painting because of the intricacies of the overlapping petals.”
The NAHS members’ hard work was rewarded. They were given a free lunch at the Roosevelt Tavern. Mackin stated knowing that Downtown York is a brighter place to be is a pretty good reward.
Dommel said it was about representing York Suburban in a creative way, saying, “I got to interact with random people that stopped on the street to talk to me about art.”
None of these participants asked for anything in return, only to share their passion, give a little charity work, and have fun doing what they love.
Parking sign. http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-parking-sign-park-green-image42214015