Family gift inspires Desmond and Tarr’s assignment and leads to holiday fun
When group environmental projects were assigned in Ann Kittredge’s 3-Dimensional Design class at the Houlton Higher Education Center this fall, Nick Tarr and Logan Desmond had no problem coming up with their project.
Contributed photo
BEING CREATIVE — Two students taking an art course at the Houlton Higher Education Center pose with their art professor and their masterpiece, on display in the Center’s lobby. They are, from left, Logan Desmond, Professor Ann Kittredge, and Nick Tarr.
The High School Aspirations Incentive Program students are juniors at Southern Aroostook Community High School in Dyer Brook and are enrolled in this college course as part of the Aspirations program sponsored through the University of Maine at Presque Isle. The University of Maine System and state of Maine Department of Education allows students with a junior standing to participate in college-level work with the approval of parents and their school.
When final projects were assigned, Tarr and Desmond opted to reconstruct out of cardboard the 1997 Jeep that Desmond’s late grandfather, Philip Sherman, had made arrangements for him to receive. Since the purpose of the project was to influence the viewer’s perception of the environment, the two students came up with the idea of building a cardboard model of the vehicle and “parking” the reconstruction outside the Houlton Center, next to the real thing. The hope was to create a scene that would cause passers-by to do a double-take.
When weather conditions weren’t favorable for doing the reconstruction outdoors, the jeep was moved to the lobby of the Houlton Higher Education Center, where it has received lots of notice and even provided some holiday fun. On December 15, a traffic ticket was found on the jeep, and the following day, a second notice of violation was discovered.
According to the ticket, it seems that the North Pole Traffic Patrol (NPTP) wasn’t happy about the location of Nick and Logan’s jeep. The violation ticket stated that “This vehicle is in direct violation of NPTP directive ART102.24C which states that any vehicle blocking Santa’s access, either indoors or outdoors, will be towed at owner’s expense and the owner or owners of such vehicle will forfeit all gifts now and in the future unless said vehicle is moved prior to December 23, 2008. On this date, Santa will be taking his team out for trial runs and it is imperative that all access lanes be cleared. Furthermore, any vehicle found to be in violation is advised to seek counsel. (Rudolph will be the Presiding Judge for all traffic violations and he is known to take access to children’s homes and Christmas trees V-E-R-Y S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y.
