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iUmiM
JUNIOR
A
AN
KATHLEEN KENNEDY TURNED
PILE OF PARKING FINES INTO
OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE
HER TALENT AS A MURALIST
By Maxwell Reitman
Staff Writer
Last year, near disaster turned into a wonderful op
portunity for junior and CCE student Kathleen Ken
nedy, who owns International Designs, a mural paint
ing company. Faced with an insurmountable wall of
tickets and fines for illegal parking Public Safety gave
her the opportunity to turn her debt into a mural for
the geology department.
In fall 2007, Kathleen studied abroad in Germany
for her second full semester. After months without a
car, in a country with different driving laws, Kennedy
found herself unfamiliar with the rules of the road in
Greensboro.
"(There was) a little bit of culture shock in coming
back." said Kennedy.
Most importantly, she forgot to put her campus
registration sticker on her car. By the end of her first
day back, she had a $100 dollar ticket on her car. By
the end of the second day, $200 dollars accumulated.
Halfway through the semester the total had climbed
to $1200 dollars.
The series of fines all came down on her the day
before the Drawathon, which Kathleen was helping
to organize.
"I went out to the car and there was a boot on the
car," said Kathleen.
Having no other choice, Kennedy spoke with Ron
Stowe, director of public safety. He asked her why she
had not paid the tickets and registered her car.
"I thought if I didn't register, you guys would nev
er find me," Kennedy said. According to Kennedy, at
this point Stowe started laughing and commented on
her honesty. They began to discuss what she could do
to pay for her tickets and Kennedy pulled out one of
the brochures for her mural painting business. Stowe
looked over it and gave Kennedy this response:
"I will give you a week to find a department on
campus which will let you paint a mural to pay for
your tickets."
Kennedy's husband, a Guilford physics major, in
troduced her to the geology and earth sciences de
partment and the planning began.
After a great deal of planning and thought, the de
(Above) The large plant eating dinosaurs
are Alamosauruses. In the water, what
looks like a relation of the Loch Ness
monster is actually a Leptocleidus.
(Left) Members of the Geology depart
ment stand in front of the mural with the
artist.They are(Left to Right) Assistant
Professor Angie Moore, junior Kath
leen Kennedy, and Professors Mar
lene McCauley and Dave Dobson.
Photos by Lori Hendrickson
partment decided on the Late Cretaceous period as
the theme of the mural.
Then began the evaluation of what creatures would
be appropriate for the piece.
"We all ... had these ideas and bounced them
around with Kathleen," said Professor Angie Moore
who was involved in the process of deciding on the
theme of the mural.
One notable element in the piece is the mesosaur
skeleton which is tucked up in the left of the mural.
"(The mesosaur was) one of the key fossils when
they were first putting together the theory of conti
nental drift," said Moore.
Overall, Kennedy has counted this as a positive
experience and has noted an interest in working on
a science-oriented project again sometime soon. She
has seen an increase in business for her murals since
the project, having been contracted for one mural on
campus and one mural off campus.
There was an official unveiling for the piece on
Nov. 12.