This upcoming December, New Trier will be celebrating an up and coming artist from the North Shore area who’s found his canvas on the walls of New Trier — the bathroom walls. Though many students have begun proclaiming this artist the Banksy of the Bathroom or Lavatorio De Vinci, the artist chooses to go by the pen name, Andy War-Stall, a testament to both his canvas and his more modern style.
New Trier’s restroom art scene is a rapidly growing underground culture, with New Trier art students looking to spread their gift outside of the 4th floor’s classrooms. Recently, New Trier’s Principal of Bathroom Security, Mrs. Krup, has been looking to bring an end to latrine vandalism, arguing that the emerging artists are simply troublesome students covering the walls of the bathrooms with profanity and vulgar images. However, New Trier has been very reluctant to take any action towards the tattooed toilet walls as their AP Art History course finally has another unit students can study.
In a recent interview with War-Stall, Near True News’s Viceroy of the Arts and Crafts, Aiden Hayride, investigated the roots of New Trier’s newfound art and the meanings behind some of War-Stall’s more iconic portraits
“as we teenagers spend upwards of 2 hours a day in there on our phones, the bathroom is such a familiar and intimate haven for us,” War-Stall said. “It becomes remarkably easy to express our vulnerabilities and inner feelings through art within the confines of a stall.” Other students agree.
Nonetheless, War-Stall is under fire for his newest portrait in New Trier’s 2nd Floor E-Building bathroom, located just above the row of urinals. To many, this piece loosely resembles a rather graphic depiction of male genitalia. However, when asked about how he and other students fluent in the bathroom art scene see it, he described it as a Post-Impressionist reflection of gender stereotypes amongst New Trier Society.
Although he has been successful in keeping his more contemporary works preserved, recently a more abstract piece resonating the most with students was removed by the janitorial staff under the instruction of Mrs. Krup. New Trier’s bathroom artists were extremely frustrated with the loss of the one-of-a-kind piece. Krup and her dictatorial crew of janitors simply saw a picture of the principal being eaten by a massive Tyrannosaurus rex in the 4th floor bathroom, adorned with red sharpie to depict their entrails, but failed to recognize it as a one-of-a-kind neoimpressionist installation, brought to life through the artist’s exceptional pointillism and lithography. The monster sketched on the steel stall wall represents the internal pressures faced by New Trier’s executive faculty amongst a ruthless younger class of students.
We as a newspaper and collection of students stand with War-Stall and the Union of Bathroom Painters, fighting for free speech and expression worldwide. And you can most definitely trust that we’ll be voting for War-Stall for Best Upcoming Painter at this year’s Fellowship of Artists in Restroom and Toilets awards.
