Fifth-graders at W.T. Cooke Elementary School hotfooted out of the building and onto the blacktop Monday morning.

The change in scenery stopped the 11-year-olds in their tracks.

Six grungy, grayish basketball backboards had been reimagined. The new look: bright fish-scale patterns, puffy clouds, a smiling mouth – a bold design for each.

“They’re sick, ” Tyler Klinger said with bravado.

Sick means cool, he told a reporter, who had asked for clarification.

“It’s beachy, ” said William Mathews, flicking his straight blond hair out of his eyes as he headed to the field for a game of tug-of-war.

Brianna Broce stayed on the blacktop for a minute longer with her friend, Amelia Smith.

“I like the designs, ” said Brianna, who had a hard time picking her favorite one. “They’re all pretty.”

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He painted Cooke’s outdoor backboards on 16th Street and Mediterranean Avenue on Sunday.

Studio 17, Summerell’s art studio with his trademark OnieTonie Designs mural, is two blocks north in the ViBe Creative District. Mary Carol Lynch, art teacher at Cooke Elementary, visited the studio a couple of months ago. Summerell asked her about painting the school’s backboards, and she relayed the offer to Principal Pam Bennis, who accepted.

“I enjoy seeing your work every day as I drive to work and would love to have our outside basketball courts look more attractive, ” she wrote in a letter to the artist.

About 500 students attend Cooke, which opened in Virginia Beach in 1913.

Summerell wanted the students to see the backboards before summer break and add some pop to their daily routine, he said.

Source: pilotonline.com