Southeast seniors add touch of art to parking lot

Aug. 4—For the last three years, Emma Kate Creel has watched as Southeast Lauderdale High School seniors rolled into school in the morning, parking their cars in brightly colored spaces bearing a bit of their own personalities.

Finally, this year, it is her turn.

"I have been so excited to paint this," said Creel, who was out late Thursday afternoon amid the sweltering heat trying to paint finishing touches to her parking space.

Her design is a light pink background with oversized X's and O's painted across the space with her name in the middle. She also hoped to find room to squeeze in Proverbs 31:25, as well as the words "stay golden" in a nod to Golden Goose shoes and "captain," since she is a captain of the cheer team.

"I always say 'XOXO EK' with all of my stuff so I have always wanted to do the XOXO on my parking space," she said. "So I went on Pinterest and looked for cute ideas using it."

Painting their assigned parking spaces is a rite of passage for seniors at many local high schools. It is task, albeit an extremely hot one, that students look forward to from entering high school as a freshman.

The hand-painted, colorful parking spaces at Southeast are varied from the sporty — baseball or basketball — to a few with seniors' favorite things, such as a Ninja Turtle or Dr. Pepper logo to even the funny, like one with a simple orange backdrop with the words "If you're reading this ... I'm still asleep" in black lettering.

Seniors painting their assigned parking space is a tradition Creel fully supports because, "it lets seniors show their personalities."

Most of the Southeast seniors who were lucky enough to reserve the limited spaces, which cost $50 and are on a first come-first serve basis, began painting a week ago.

Allison Shannon was on her fourth trip to finish her parking space before her senior year officially began Friday.

"I came out here last Thursday morning at 9 o'clock in the morning and couldn't hardly touch the pavement throughout the day until sunset when it got cooler," she said.

She mustered through the heat and was quite happy with how her space was beginning to look.

"I really, really, really like disco balls but I didn't want to just do one," she said.

Instead, she came across a graphic of disco cherries online. With the help of her painting partner, Southeast teacher Robin Lenox, they brainstormed a design that incorporated the disco cherries on a pink background along with her name and graduation year.

While she had yet to paint her name on the space at the time, apparently friends already recognized her personality in the art.

"I've had many people come up to me and say, 'this is very Allison, is this is yours?'" she laughed.

Phillip Coleman, who, along with his wife, owns the sign business Custom Creations in Long Creek, discovered a pavement wrap that he is testing with his daughter's parking space this year. The wrap is designed specifically for outdoor, rough surfaces like asphalt and promises a one-year life.

"We are not sure how it is going to work," he said. "We are giving it a shot, and we are hoping it holds up."

His daughter, Alexa Coleman, designed the parking space herself in an online graphics program, then they uploaded it to their sign software, added a few things like shadows that she couldn't do in her program and printed it out.

"She loved it, and she got to do her own design," he said.

While the wrap is pricey, regular paint and brushes may set parents back as much as $300 or more, plus all of the hours spent in the heat trying to get a design just perfect. He and his daughter had her space finished in less than 45 minutes.

Ashlee Bailey, who teaches physical education at Southeast Elementary and is a cheer and volleyball coach at the high school, was assisting Creel to paint her space on Thursday afternoon. Having taught and coached Creel over the years, when the senior asked her to help, Bailey said she couldn't refuse.

"I did my daughter's back in 2019, she asked me and I told her of course I would help her," Bailey said.

She offered three snippets of advice for others looking to paint their parking space.

First, you will need a lot of patience, she said. Secondly, plan out your design before you begin. Don't just show up with paint cans and brushes with no idea where to start.

Thirdly, buy a big roller with a long handle to prime and paint the space's background color before you add the decorative touches. Lastly, paint in the early morning hours or late afternoon because the hot asphalt can be unbearable in late summer.

"Wait until early morning or late evening because it is hot, hot during the day," Bailey said.

Contact Glenda Sanders at gsanders@themeridianstar.com.