"Murals happen." That is the best explanation Peter Wilton '10 can give for the pictures that keep cropping up on Myers's walls. Myers is unique among Carleton residence halls in that its walls are lined with tiles that make a perfect surface for writing with dry-erase markers. The walls there are scattered with stick-figure drawings and random snatches of poetry.
Among these sketches there are works of a much grander proportion. Take for example the floor-to-ceiling scale map of campus. This was the brainchild of Coryn Pavelsky '10. It started when Coryn's roommate decided to tape a printed map of Carleton to the wall to help incoming freshmen find their way around campus. The idea progressed naturally from there. Why not draw the map on the wall -- big?
The map of campus is still a work in progress. All the buildings and the Lyman Lakes are in place, but Coryn still needs to draw in the footpaths. Sometimes people come and help him with it, but he does the majority of the work himself.
Peter Wilton got his start helping on the campus map. He moved on to an outline of New Zealand, then a scale map of Middle Earth that is even larger than the map of campus.
Wilton's Middle Earth is an exact replica of the map found in the endpapers of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, down to the last detail. To attain such a high degree of accuracy, Peter uses a grid method. He used a ruler to measure the ratio of the height and width of the bricks on Myers's walls. Then he printed out a copy of the Middle Earth map and drew rectangles on it in pencil the exact same shape as the bricks. This provided him with a reference of exactly how far up and how far across a certain feature should go.
The Middle Earth map is also a work in progress, at its current state about halfway done. Peter isn't sure when it will be completed.
