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 a mural created in Beatrice, Nebraska, last summer as part of a Street Art II: Mural Masters class led by Sandra Williams, associate professor of art. They also painted a mural at Premier Chevrolet Buick GMC in June.
When the Athletic Department reached out to the School of Art, Art History and Design with the idea for this artwork, the faculty suggested them for the project.
“It was all a team effort, and we did an excellent job on communicating and knowing what to do for each of the tasks,” said Reese, who is from Fort Smith, Arkansas
Jordan Litten, a senior economics major and director of football cinematography for Nebraska Athletics, contacted Fullinfaw, who is originally from Omaha, about the project about halfway through the painting process.
"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," Fullinfaw said.
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 they created each piece around each player.
“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,” Reese 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."
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. They wanted to keep the likeness of each player while also turning them into compelling pieces of art," Fullinfaw said. "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,” Reese 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.”
That both art and athletics were able to collaborate on this project is special, Reese 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," she said. "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.”
The artists — and their friends and family — enjoyed seeing 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.”
Fullinfaw noted that almost 100% 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,” Fullinfaw 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. The full set of paintings is on view on Husker Football social media @HuskerFootball.
