Four students from the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts created graffiti-style murals of each player signed by the Husker football team for National Signing Day on Dec. 4.
Senior art major Michelle Reese, senior graphic design major Maddie Vanderbur, senior graphic design major Lea Bushey, and senior emerging media arts major Micah Fullinfaw collaborated to create the artwork.
Reese, Vanderbur and Bushey all worked on the mural created in Beatrice, Nebraska, last summer, as part of a Street Art II: Mural Masters class led by Associate Professor of Art Sandra Williams. They painted a mural at Premier Chevrolet Buick GMC in June.
So when the Athletic Department reached out to the School of Art, Art History & Design with the idea for this artwork, the faculty suggested them for the project.
“All of us had a role where Lea and Maddie would graphic design the guys, and we used a projector to trace and paint the guys, and then I would go in and do the numbers, the names and the graffiti tags. Micah would do the spray painting on the guys with the background,” said Reese, who is from Fort Smith, Arkansas. “It was all a team effort, and we did an excellent job on communicating and knowing what to do for each of the tasks.”
Fullinfaw, who is originally from Omaha, Nebraska, was contacted about the project by Jordan Litten, a senior economics major and director of football cinematography for Athletics.
“I was brought onto this project about halfway through the painting process,” he said. “Jordan Litten contacted me and asked if I would be willing to help on a mural project for football. He had seen my recent graffiti work with the women’s basketball team, and he and his painters thought I could be a good addition to their project.”
In total, 20 players signed with the Huskers on Dec. 1, and their paintings were posted to the Husker Football social media pages. Reese said each player had a different theme in their piece.
“Each player was different, like the theme, their personalities and their hometown because we still wanted to make it feel like home in this new environment soon,” she said. “We had an Excel sheet for each player about who they are, and I just looked at references on Google and combined it with graffiti. Overall, I love how it turned out, and it definitely shows the theme. We worked with a lot of acrylic paint, spray paint, gold metallic paint, cardboard, an organizer for each player, paint markers, popsicle sticks and an airbrush.”
Fullinfaw said a lot went into the planning of the look for all the paintings.
“Lea and Maddie designed how each portrait would look, using the photos from their visits as reference images,” he said. “They wanted to keep the likeness of each player while also turning them into compelling pieces of art. We tried to make each painting reflect the character of the athlete, and I had fun designing some of the backgrounds. I would research their hometowns to see if there were murals I could get inspiration from.”
Reese’s favorite player to create was Bryson Webber.
“I loved how his personality was in his pictures with his hair and how he was holding the chain,” she said. “And I love how I did his background with the venom look and the brush strokes textures in front of it. It gave it a lot of cool vibes and the gold highlights.”
Fullinfaw’s favorite portrait was Cortez Mills.
“He is from the Miami area, so I got experimental with a neon look,” he said. “I had to carefully play how to pull this off, as I did not want to redo it and waste our paints and time. There was uncertainty if Cortez would sign with the Huskers, and he even initially said he was committing to Oklahoma. I would have been disappointed if no one could see his painting, so I am glad he flipped and signed to be a Husker.”
Reese is a football fan, which helped with the project.
“I love sports, and I’ve always wanted art and sports to combine, and this project made it happen because art is not just about a canvas, it can be big within the community,” she said.
Fullinfaw is also a Husker fan.
“I grew up here and have gone to almost every game while I have been a student at the university,” he said. “This project definitely got me more interested in the future of Husker football.”
Reese is glad both art and athletics were able to collaborate on this project.
“I feel blessed and accomplished because people love sports and them seeing that students did that is amazing to me, and everybody is loving the creative idea for this,” she said. “The great thing about it is I’m very appreciative because our art department is small and now collaborating with a bigger platform/program will get the name out there. It’s a wonderful idea of how much they care for their players to feel like home, and of course, the marketing behind of more future players will come to Nebraska to see how we celebrate on Signing Day because it’s a big deal.”
Fullinfaw said it was great to see the work roll out on National Signing Day.
“We had to be quite secretive about the project, so it was nice to be able to show people what I had been working on,” he said. “I love art, and I love Nebraska, so I found lots of fulfillment in making these pieces.”
Reese also appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with graphic design and emerging media arts majors.
“Collaborating with different majors was great, especially the talent they have,” she said. “Micah worked with the Women’s Basketball team and did some digital work for them, and so we saw that. He came in and helped us push through towards the end. Micah was a big impact on the project, and it’s fun, too, about the cool ideas we’ve shared.”
Fullinfaw found it to be a rewarding experience as well.
“Lea, Maddie and Michelle all had unique skills and resources that made the process much smoother,” he said. “It was important to voice our skills and our different personal experiences so that we could each contribute in a specific way to this project. This kind of collaboration was so important because it opened us up to new methods and artistic processes.”
Fullinfaw noted that almost 100 percent of the Signing Day campaign was brought to life by student workers.
“The planning, painting, documenting and video edits were all done by students at the university,” he said. “I think the choice of the football team to look inward for talent was powerful, as it highlighted the skills that are present within the Husker community.”
The pieces reside in the new Osborne Athletic Complex located next to Memorial Stadium but are not on public view. But you can view the full set of paintings on Husker Football social media @HuskerFootball.