{"id":18728,"date":"2020-12-24T11:13:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T16:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=18728"},"modified":"2020-12-24T11:14:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T16:14:04","slug":"rhonda-ratray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2020\/12\/24\/rhonda-ratray\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing A Monster Snowplow For Vermont Winters"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a number of years now, artists from Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington, Vermont, have been painting designs across the town\u2019s snowplows. Last year, Rhonda Ratray, a teaching artist in the program, was invited by her boss, Executive Director Matthew Perry, to create that year\u2019s design.<\/p>\n

But, Ratray recalls, \u201cIt snowed earlier than expected and Norm [LeBlanc of the Highway Department] needed the plow for the roads, so we put it off till 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

So this fall, together with her art students from Vermont School for Girls, which provides services to girls ages 11 to 20 with special needs, she developed the painting.<\/p>\n

\""Batbeast"<\/a>
“Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, October 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen I had first conceived of my design, the plow was a light blue and I was thinking of a snowdragon\/ serpent motif,\u201d Ratray writes. \u201cIn 2020, Norm got a new plow that was a beautiful deep orange color and I felt I needed to tweak my design. I knew I wanted to do a beast and so a bat-inspired creation seemed more relevant in 2020 and it gave me an opportunity to utilize the base color of the plow.\u201d<\/p>\n

They cut out mylar stencils\u2014one for each color: pink, yellow, black\u2014to guide the painting of the yellow-eyed “Batbeast” with a fanged smile spanning the 11-foot-wide plow. \u201cOne of my students was especially helpful cutting the mylar stencils with me during class time,\u201d Ratray writes. \u201cAfter each layer was cut, we excitedly taped up the stencil and spray-painted.\u201d<\/p>\n

LeBlanc added reflective tape to make the creature\u2019s eyes shine. “Which,” Ratray writes, \u201cI thought was perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2020 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\""Batbeast"<\/a>
“Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, fall 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Batbeast"<\/a>
“Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, October 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Batbeast"<\/a>
“Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, fall 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Batbeast"<\/a>
“Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, fall 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stencils<\/a>
Stencils for the “Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, fall 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Batbeast"<\/a>
“Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, fall 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Spraypainting<\/a>
Spraypainting the “Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, fall 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Batbeast"<\/a>
“Batbeast” snowplow design by Rhonda Ratray with help from her art students from Vermont School for Girls for the North Bennington, Vermont, highway department, October 2020. (Courtesy Rhonda Ratray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a number of years now, artists from Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington, Vermont, have been painting designs across the town\u2019s snowplows. Last year, Rhonda Ratray, a teaching artist in the program, was invited by her boss, Executive Director Matthew Perry, to create that year\u2019s design. But, Ratray recalls, \u201cIt snowed earlier than expected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,105],"tags":[829,196,828],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18728"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18791,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728\/revisions\/18791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}