From Field Day Kickball Team Mascot to Fashion Icon
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From Field Day Kickball Team Mascot to Fashion Icon

In support of mnartists.org Field Day, which took place on August 27th at the Walker, I decided to rally some colleagues to form a kickball team. We were scrappy, made up mainly of education and new media folks with some help from membership and visitor services. Our name: Spherical Propulsion Ensemble (SPE). Our mascot: the subject of Angus Fairhurst’s The Birth of Consistency, a gorilla. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm for propelling kickballs didn’t match our ability, but we had a raging good time attempting to topple a talented Walker marketing team. A team, by the way, that somehow managed to recruit three especially nimble players who were each roughly fourteen years old. Not fair! Luckily, we avoided a shutout thanks to the kicking talents of Robin Dowden.

I was happy to see that despite our loss our mascot ended up prominently displayed on a number of screen-printed shirts being cranked out at Calpurnia Peach’s Remake, Revamp.

SPE mascot with name
SPE mascot with name
SPE gorilla with alternate text
SPE gorilla with alternate text

Truth be told, we as a team never got around to getting our mascot on our shirts prior to the fated game, so it wasn’t exactly clear to Field Day goers that the sporty ape had a kickball connection. I had actually commissioned my husband, former opera singer and current finance professional/guerilla sketch artist (pun intended), to bring our team name to life. The gorilla’s colorful (re)appearance at field day was a fun surprise. Wear him with pride Minneapolitans.

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