Winter driving became a bit more interesting with the Paint the Plow project. There are some unique designs on various snow plow trucks traversing Ohio.
Organized by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), the Paint the Plow project involves area high schools statewide, who are each tasked with the job of creating their own design to be painted on the blades of plow trucks. One local participant includes Lexington High School.
Art teacher Mike Hamman stated that he was a little hesitant to participate in the project due to limited space and time constraints. However, Adam Lape, a Lexington grauduate and current ODOT employee, approached Hamman, asking him to paint one of the plows.
“I told him that if he could find me a space to put the plow, then I’d be glad to do it,” said Hamman. With some rearranging and extra elbow grease, they managed to push the plow blade into the art room and get to work.
Hamman, along with students Morgan Ziegler, Aerial Evans and Hanna Gilbert, collaborated on the project during the end of November through the beginning of December.
Although causing some cramped space, Hamman stated, “It was neat having the plow in the classroom and watching the metamorphosis of the project coming together.”
Hamman said that there weren’t any restrictions to what they could paint, but was told that many schools did patriotic themes. Keeping that in mind, together the students and Hamman brainstormed different designs and came up with the idea to incorporate flags, eagles and military personnel, he said.
“At first we went with one man and one woman, but we did not like the design, so we put the military grouping in the middle and liked the umbrella effect that the eagles gave the military men. The only change we made after that was an addition of the logo for the Wounded Warriors, so we looked that up and placed it in the middle,” Hamman stated.
They devoted three weekends to the project (about 65 hours total) to help give the plow a fresh look.
“I thought it turned out really cool,” said Hamman. “The little sacrifice we made doing this pales in comparison to what the men and women do to keep our freedom. It’s our way of saying thank you to them.”
“I thought it turned out really cool,” said Mike Hamman. “The little sacrifice we made doing this pales in comparison to what the men and women do to keep our freedom. It’s our way of saying thank you to them.”
