CHS Art Club has been accepted to participate in the Paint-a-Plow Program hosted by the Washtenaw County Road Commission, a program that allows schools and community centers to paint a snow plow with a given theme and that plow will be used this winter.

A snow plow was dropped off at the school on Sept. 11 and will be picked up the week of Oct. 16. The theme this year is “Seasons of Washtenaw.”

“So now we have to figure out what we want. The theme this year is Seasons of Washtenaw so we got to put our thinking caps on and come up with some designs,” Art Club advisor, Beth Portincasa said.

CHS Art Club began this project when Portincasa brought a snowplow to art club and informed the art club members that they would be painting a snow plow.

“Beth ended up crossing our path and she told us that she had a snow plow for us to paint,” Art Club member, Bee Whalen said.“She told us we’d be painting it and pretty much said, See you at art club, walked away, and we were like, how did she get a snow plow?”

The art club currently does not have a chosen design for their snow plow but know that they want their design to be enjoyable and exciting.

“I definitely want it to be creative and I want when people see it to get a feeling of the joy of Community High School,” Portincasa said. “So I want it to be fun. I wanted to be intriguing.”

Whalen thought of the theme “Seasons of Washtenaw” and immediately thought of summer.

“It should be summer so that when you see it rolling by your house, you’re like, ‘Oh, man, there’s so much snow. At least we’ll have summer,” Whalen said. ‘I think the colors would pop really nicely against the snow too, so I think a lot of us gravitated towards that, some people are going more with the snowy theme. But I’m really sticking to the season’s theme.”

Art club is still working on concepts and designs for the snowplow they plan to use but as of right now they have not decided on a specific one. All of the designs from different groups are going to be put on the snowplow and each day a different design will be attached to the plow while it plows snow during wintertime.

After concepts and designs are complete, CHS art club is going to vote on which design they like best, and that design will be painted onto the snow plow.

The CHS art club has their first official meeting Sept. 21, 2023 at 2:00-3:00 p.m. and are working on designs for the plow. Art club members were notified a couple weeks before Art Club had its official first meeting so they can begin thinking about designs and get some sketches out because art club will only have about a month to complete their plow.

“I put that out last week or maybe two weeks ago, so they can start actually thinking a little bit and hopefully get some sketches out,” Portincasa said. “I’d like to pick a design and then we can get at it because we only have a month.”

Art club is working with a tight deadline and within that time they must finalize a design, select colors, mix paints and complete the painting process itself.

“I know from my own experience with murals and stuff,” Whalen said. “If you have a deadline that tight, you really got to  pick up on it. ”