Texas Parking Lot Art

I was walking across the Joshua High School parking lot a year ago when I noticed paintings on some of the parking spaces. They were something I’d never seen before; parking spaces as canvases for folk art. Cool! Judging by an Internet search they’re something of a novelty; the only locations I found information for were West Orange High School in Florida and James Bowie High School in Texas. Looking at the Joshua artwork, I knew I’d want to photograph them sometime.

Joshua High School parking lot, from Google Maps satellite view. (At least a year old, as some of the art has changed.)

I finally got my chance a week ago, when I went over to the school early Saturday morning. At first the novelty of the subject presented a challenge: how to photograph them? What actually was the subject and what did I want to convey about it? I started off taking photos that mainly featured the art work, but which offered a sliver of the surrounding environment to provide perspective and context. However, as I became familiar with them I started to notice relationships between some spaces, involving subject matter, technique or simply colors. And so I started to explore some of those relationships.

This wound up being a really fun project that I’ll have to revisit in the future. I hope you have as much fun viewing these images as I had working with them. And thanks to the creative students of Joshua High for creating such wonderful artwork!

♦ ♦

(Clicking on any image will open a slide show.)