Aledo teen spent hours on larger-than-life Dolly Parton painting. Then it was vandalized.

Will Lepard had looked forward to the tradition of painting his senior parking spot since he was a freshman at Aledo High School and, when it came time to choose what to paint, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

After 14 cans of paint and a week-and-a-half spent crouched on the hot parking lot pavement, the 18-year-old completed his masterpiece — a parking-space-sized rendition of his idol, Dolly Parton.

Parton’s larger-than-life smile beamed from the pavement beneath the words “Hillbilly Willy” — a reference to a 1970 Parton song — and her blue eyes seemed to glitter beneath meticulously painted lashes. Lepard spent hours in between his part-time job and an out-of-town trip to finish the painting the day before school started. Some nights, he worked until 1:30 a.m. or 2 a.m. He paid $100 for the parking spot and $300 on the paint, and took several days to sketch the blueprint onto sheets of paper he taped together.

But it only took someone one night and a can of black paint to ruin the art he worked so methodically to create.

Lepard’s painting of Parton was vandalized over the weekend. In thick black paint, someone had graffitied what appears to be the Batman symbol and the letters “BW” and “DS” on Parton’s beaming face.

Since then, a Facebook post made by Lepard’s aunt about the vandalism has been shared and liked thousands of times on Facebook, and hundreds of people have offered to help Lepard repaint his spot. One woman asked if she could buy Lepard new paint, his mother, Molley Moseley Michel said, and the woman went to Lowe’s in Weatherford to pick up the supplies. When she went to check out, Lowe’s took 50% off everything she got because staff at the store had seen the post, too.

“People hearing about it from Tennessee to Florida are all working together to help me out,” Lepard said. “Which I think is absolutely crazy.”

‘I gotta fix this’

Lepard started collecting Parton memorabilia when he was a freshman. A wall in his room is dedicated to the approximately 30 records he has collected, and one of his favorite treasures is an original 1980s Playboy featuring Parton, which he found for $11 at Doc’s Records & Vintage in Fort Worth.

Not only does Lepard love Parton’s music — his favorite song is “One Emotion After Another” — but he is inspired by the joy she brings to those around her. No matter how mean or rude someone might be, Lepard said, Parton responds with positivity.

That optimism is a trait that Lepard himself has shown in the face of someone destroying his artwork, his mom said.

Michel found out about the vandalism on Saturday night, when she got a text from another parent from the high school about the graffiti. She said she immediately broke down. She was “so mad, I was so furious someone did that to my child.”

She called Lepard, who was at work, and told him what happened. Then she and her husband immediately got to work.

“What does a mom do? I gotta fix this,” she said. “And we all go out there and start scrubbing it.”

When he first heard about the vandalism, Lepard said, he was not sure if he was more angry or sad. He felt like he might cry, but he chose instead to focus on what he could do next. He got through the rest of his shift at the restaurant where he works, and then listened to Parton on repeat for about five hours. He resolved to redo the entire painting.

“I cannot go back in time. It’s painted over,” he said. “The only thing to do is go up there and fix it. Repaint it. Clean it up. That’s the only solution.”

By Monday, most of the black paint was scrubbed from Lepard’s painting, but smudges remain. The paint — which previously looked smooth and bright — is now peeling and looks like it’s been there for several years, Lepard said.

Rain is in the forecast for most of the week in Dallas-Fort Worth, and football season might mean a packed parking lot on weekends. But Lepard still hopes in the next few weeks, he will get the chance to redo his painting.

The school is also investigating the vandalism. His mom said campus police planned to review the security footage of the parking lot, but Michel said she had not heard from them as of Monday afternoon. She hopes they can find whoever vandalized her son’s painting, “just so I can ask them why.”

Michel and Lepard said they do not know what the letters are supposed to mean — the letters could be the vandals’ initials or a reference to “Bruce Wayne.” No matter the meaning, Lepard said, the vandalism seems to be the work of someone “destroying other people’s stuff because they feel bad about themselves.”

“Whoever did it, I’m not going to give up showing what I did to other people,” Lepard said. “I’m not going to let this person ruin my day.”