Prior to the yearly Paint The Town (PTT) event, a group of Polo Community High School students arrive in Morrison, IL, to paint windows on Morrison, IL, Main Street businesses. For 13 of PTT’s 20 years, Art instructor Jamie (Belschner) Harmon has brought a collection of creative kids to work their magic on glass, rather than canvas. Twenty-one of them arrived on Thursday, September 18.
Harmon is a 1996 graduate of Morrison High School, and is familiar with the concept of PTT. She selected seven upper classmen to paint; each chose two lower classmen to assist. The classes ranged across four years. A second requirement was that each design must incorportate the number 20, in honor of the 20th anniversary of Paint The Town.
Holly Scholl, left, was assigned a window of her own at Kophamer & Blean Real Estate, 118 E. Main Street. She is a 2012 Polo High School graduate, and this is her fifth as a contributor to PTT. Scholl is a Junior at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL, majoring in Graphic Design. Currently she is taking a figure drawing class, so this window offered a perfect opportunity.
She holds a phone with a photo of her sister Lana in a lyrical dance pose–the inspiration of Holly’s painting. She stated she wanted to feature the impression and movement of a dancer’s skirt.
Lana was a student painter today, and another sister, Megan, has been, said their mother, Kathy Scholl.
Holly Scholl and Amanda Cook, Morrison, were designers of the two 2014 Paint The Town t-shirts. Cook is a 1997 graduate of Morrison High School with a degree in Graphic Design from Northern Illinois University. She owns and operates Simply Aesthetic Design & Photography.
On Thursday, September 18, Scholl was presented with a check from Children’s Art Preservation Association (CAPA) by members, left-to-right, Carol Wolf, Window Coordinator, and John Martin, Co-President (with Barb Bees) Harmon is at far left.
