Art and Democracy: Culture Jam Project
Happy Parking Tickets by Madeleine Pettit
Introduction
This project is about spreading positivity. Whenever I find something on my windshield when I park at UCCS, it has always been negative, such as claims that I am killing the environment by using my car or an actual parking ticket. I wanted to recreate the experience of finding a ticket, except the payoff is not a fine or negative memory, but a quote, poem, or joke.
Quotes
I picked quotes based on how inspirational it felt to me, or rather, that I felt it underscored that you have a part in your happiness.
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
Thich Nhat Hanh“It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
-Jim Rohn
Poems
For my poems, I picked two haikus that always make me smile, and a poem about sharing any happiness you have.
A lovely thing to see:
through the paper window’s hole,
the Galaxy.
-Kobayahsi IssaExperimenting…
I hung the moon on various
branches of the pine
-HokushiAny Little Word — Unknown
If any little word of ours,
Can make one life the brighter;
If any little song of ours
Can make one heart the lighter;God help us speak that little word,
And take our bit of singing,
And drop it in some lonely vale
To set the echoes ringing
Jokes
Finally, I did four jokes because I thought, what better way to spread positivity than making people laugh?
#1
The local minister sees that every morning, some apples on his tree are missing. He makes a sign that says:
God sees everything.
The next morning, somebody writes under it: Yes, but he’s not a snitch.#2
I bought some shoes from a drug dealer. I don’t know what he laced them with, but I’ve been tripping all day.#3
Two cows are in a field, one says to the other “I’m really worried about Mad Cow Disease, wouldn’t it be awful to have that?” The other cow says “Oh I’m not worried about that, I’m a helicopter!”#4
What do you get when you cross a dyslexic, an insomniac, and an agnostic?Someone who lays awake at night wondering if there is a dog
I distributed a set of 10 in different parking lots all over UCCS. In order to make the tickets feel more authentic, I used a font that resembles receipt lettering, and hand folded and glued envelopes to place my tickets in from yellow card stock. Overall, the tickets looked convincing.
