At the beginning of the 2020 school year, seniors were given the opportunity to paint their parking spots in the upper lot. Students were given time to submit a design and fill the parking lot with their own colorful, unique designs.
Lauren Cox
“Whenever I create any piece of art, I draw inspiration from the music I listen to and the symbols mentioned in the lyrics as well as just the overall energy I feel. In Mr. Corbett’s [art] class, we called this a stream of consciousness, and I’ve been creating art this way ever since. I wanted to treat my parking spot design as an extension of my artistic process. I usually include some type of outer space image or celestial body in my paintings, so that’s where the moon comes from, but the mushrooms, stars, and butterfly were all inspired from just listening to music,” Lauren Cox said.
Evan Economou
Evan Economou’s design came from his family history.
“My family is from Greece, so I decided to do the Greek flag, since that’s a part of my background,” Economou said, “The day of painting was fun and exciting. It was really cool to put whatever you wanted onto your parking spot, and to gradually watch it grow and develop over the course of the day. As tiring as it was, it was still a fun experience that not many senior students that have gone to McNick in the past would have the chance to do.”
Molly Ennis
“[My parking spot] was inspired by my car accident last November; my car started spinning and slammed into a telephone pole. I had seen some designs that said ‘If you’re reading this, I’m late’, so I decided to put my own little twist on it and make a joke about my accident,” Molly Ennis said. The handprints came from Ennis, her mom, and other seniors, and there is one for her grandma as well.
“She passed away in June of this year and I was really close with her. She loved art and painting, so my mom and I thought it would be cool to include her in this as it’s something she would have liked to have seen or done,” Ennis said.
Nic Gilg
“I wanted to do something that would be unique, recognizable, and overall a reflection of me…one fun thing that helped me choose Pac-Man, was on one of the first days at McNick. Mrs. Esz taught our Tech class that if you looked up ‘Pac-Man’ you would be able to play a fun free version,” Nic Gilg said, “When it came time to paint, it was a super fun day…the senior class was really together, despite being physically apart.”
Katia Roetenberger
“The inspiration for my parking spot design was my love of [the movie] ‘The Greatest Showman.’ Obviously I love the inspiration and the fact that it’s from a musical, but also the idea that a million dreams are keeping me awake. I like it because it gives the impression that your head is so full of amazing and wonderful things to see and do that you can’t fall asleep, you’re so excited,” Katia Roetenberger said. Like some of the other seniors, Roetenberger’s design was a reminder of her time at McNick.
“The design process was different as I had a bunch of different ideas, but then I thought that I would pay homage to my past high school years, when ‘The Greatest Showman’ really helped me enjoy life,” Roetenberger said.
Zach Miller
Some seniors found inspiration in their interests, such as a sport, or their favorite music.
“Mine is ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ album cover from Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd is my favorite band. ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ is not my favorite album, but everyone recognizes it…I never listened to music really before high school, but in Architecture II they had a speaker in there, and one student would always play rock, and I was like wow I really like this. So it’s kinda funny that I painted that on my parking spot because it was other McNick students that got me into it,” Zach Miller said.
The McNicholas Milestone 