Riverside High School students showcase creativity in Painesville Township snowplow project

May 3—Riverside High School art students recently spent their school day at the Painesville Township Service Garage, painting designs they've created on the township's snowplows.

The plow project has been a collaboration between Riverside and the township since 2016 when the idea of painting the plows was brought up by a wife of a township employee.

Since that time, students enrolled in Art 1-4 have had the opportunity to submit designs to their art teachers. With no theme required, the project has allowed for students to be as creative as possible.

"Everybody who does it says they have fun and I feel like it's a way to show art is work," said Jessica Biller, art department chair and art teacher. "It is difficult sometimes, but it's also really fun in the fact that you're providing artwork for people to look at in their community."

The roughly 34 students who participated in the project this year started painting 11 plows around 7:30 a.m. on May 3. Biller said the participating students have a sense of pride as the township showcases the painted plows at community events, festivals and parades throughout the summer, as well as uses them throughout the winter to plow streets.

Originally, the plow painting took place at the school, but with spring weather tending to be inclement, it moved to the garage.

"We take a bus here and the kids like it better because they're not in the sun, not in the rain and we don't ever have to reschedule," Biller said.

Prior to being painted, the plows are sandblasted and primed. Upon arrival at the garage, drivers of the trucks the plows will be going on are present, putting tarps down and prepping the space.

Additionally, paint from Sherwin-Williams is provided.

"They're really good to work with and they help us out," Biller said. "The kids and art teachers bring tools — cups, brushes and all that good stuff."

After submitting their designs to their teachers, students have roughly a month to work on them outside of class before handing them over to Painesville Township trustees. The trustees then select their favorites.

"We have it down to a science," Biller said. "We're at the point where they pick a design for specific plows because they have plows that go to different community events. The plows are a little bit different, so some of the designs work better on different dimensions."

Students are usually in groups of three for each plow. The complex designs are reserved for the bigger plows and an extra person is brought on.

"Sometimes, we just have floaters," Biller said. "This year, we have a couple of kids coming later to help out who are former graduates and we have a former art teacher who's coming. They have to finish it in a school day."

Among the students participating in the plow painting were senior Paige Puhalsky and junior Tessa Logarusic.

For Puhalsky, this was her third time participating.

"I feel like this is the first time that we've all been able to be outside," she said. "We all love art and being able to have full creativity is awesome."

Puhalsky expressed that the project allows for students to be outside with their classmates and their friends. This year, the design her group was working on featured bold and fine lines, bright colors and showcased community coming together.

"Sometimes in art, we're assigned projects to do some that people don't agree with," Puhalsky said. "If we have to do portraits or something, people might feel, 'I'm not very good at that.' If they come here, they can do whatever they want along the guidelines."

Logarusic enjoys the experience of being able to paint alongside a bunch of people. Usually in art classes, students don't have a lot of time to be able to talk with one another, she said.

"This year, I got partnered up with two people who are in my art class and I've been able to talk to them the whole time," she said. "It's nice to get to know people with similar hobbies as you."

Logarusic's group was working on recreating a winter scene in a "Spongebob" episode.

"Turns out, everyone else also watched 'Spongebob' when they were little, so we all have this collective excitement to be able to work on something 'Spongebob'-related," Logarusic said.

In addition to getting out of class for the day, the project allows for art students to see what they've learned thus far, she said.

"You get your artwork displayed and it's a nice, collective experience because all of you are working on a project together," she said. "It's teamwork."

In the future, while she may not be directly hands-on with art, Puhalsky plans to be in the art realm pursuing video studies and film. However, as her love for painting has grown this year, she still plans to do something with art.

Logarusic has looked into the art programs at all of her college visits thus far.

"I think with the stuff I've done in high school, I've gotten more interested in an art minor," she said.

Going forward, the school district and the township plan to continue the plow painting, Biller said.

"It has grown as far as how many plows we do because the township has more," she said. "Sometimes, they have plows that we paint that they rotate and sit out front, so even if it's like a retired plow, we paint them."