Street-Art Sparks Sporty School Spirit

As the dawn’s sun peeked over the horizon one chilly February morning, Akiko “Shiro One” Miyakami placed the finishing touches on the mural located on the fifth floor. As she packed her spray paints, cleaning supplies, and other art paraphernalia, she hoped that the mural would inspire athleticism in those who passed by it. Little did Miyakami know that the subjects in her artworks would inspire passersby, but not in the way she most likely meant them to..

Well, they do say that talented artists are able to make their works “come to life,” but I’m sure the same “they” didn’t intend that literally!

Art speaks to its viewer.

“CATCH!” exclaimed one of the chibi characters from the fifth floor mural as they spiked a volleyball toward one of the Vixen players. Caught by surprise, the Vixen yelped when the volleyball struck her funny bone. The exaggerated caricature character pouted at her for letting the ball hit the floor so easily.

“At this rate, the graveyard is going to have better digging than you.”

The Vixen pouted at the chibi as angry adrenaline coursed through her veins. The chibi returned to stillness upon the wall, leaving the Vixen determined to prove her sly, cunning, and otherwise foxy techniques on the court. Spite is, after all, one of life’s chief motivators. Invigorated, she grabbed the volleyball and went off to do extra training.

And with that, she was to be the one to spike the Vixens’ way into the championships in the autumn of 2018. Would she admit that it was because of a character on that stretchy, crimson wall blanket who spoke to her? Absolutely not! That’d be nonsensical!

Art propagates beliefs.

Another chibi from the mural held a camera as the Peglegs team made an early recruitment advertisement. (Lately, interest meeting posters haven’t been enough propaganda to entice freshmen onto the team.)

“Achievement is our motto,” quoted a Pegleg as he proceeded to pull a random line from his scholarly head. “We have succeeded in taking consecutive L’s for the past decade.” Another Pegleg proudly stood in front of his teammate. “I’m honored to say that our next game will be in Division Z! Against an ant colony!”

All of the other members gave a standing ovation before they dabbed in unison. The chibi ended the video because they believed that the entire point of the advert had been punted out of the field of the Peglegs’ persuasive purpose.

“Your objective in making this video has landed in the outfield.”

“This is American football! WE DON’T EVEN HAVE AN OUTFIELD.”

“Yeah, but you practically punted the point of your video so far out of where it was supposed to be originally that you may as well be talking about another sport.”

While the chibi has yet to improve the team’s ballin’ (or was it bawlin’?) streak, keep your eyes peeled for when a football-sized cookie is used during practices to motivate every team member to increase touchdown frequency.

“Because nobody has the right to touch MY food,” said the Peglegs as they tried to cradle the cookie in their arms.

Art enables subjects to come together in unison.

“GO FASTER!” Dr. Markova exclaimed to her fourth period spin class. She didn’t understand why her students couldn’t grasp her commands. What was she doing wrong? She pleaded with her eyes at the mural of the chibi Lady Liberty making waves and peace signs on the spin room wall.

Chibi Liberty came to life. “Hey!” she exclaimed. “Increase the frequency of the sine waves! MAKE THE WAVES! BE THE WAVES THAT PEDAL THE SCHOOL TOWARD A BRIGHTER FUTURE!”

“That was wheely, wheely terrible,” groaned a student, overwhelmed by the saccharine, overtly idealistic nature of Chibi Liberty’s encouragement. Regardless, the class sprinted on the pedals, pedaling with such incredible acceleration that everyone appeared to be a fuzzy mirage of straining limbs and flailing pedals.

A few weeks ago, Shiro was surprised to find that members of the physical education department had left voicemails of thanks for not only her phenomenal artistic ability, but also for the fact that interest in athletics had increased exponentially (and for once, not only for the sake of having another extracurricular to write about in college essays) within Stuy. Even the sports department had been overwhelmed with interested applicants.

“Our pitch at recruitments was all it took to fully convince everyone,” remarked editors Celina Liu, Ariel Melendez, and Jeremy Rubin, as they blushed with glee.