One of the many activities to enjoy during Homecoming Week is an NIU Homecoming inspired mural that you can not only watch be painted, you’re invited to join in on the painting!
The mural’s theme draws on NIU’s Recycled Boat Race, a long-standing and revitalized Homecoming tradition. The boat race encourages teams to build boats from recycled materials and race them across the campus lagoon. The mural has been designed so that all Huskies, regardless of artistic ability, will have the opportunity to participate in its creation by painting 12-inch by 12-inch sections.
Three artists, two alumni and current School of Art and Design students, collaborated on the design.
- Ryan Travis Christian, a 2007 NIU alumnus, has experience making high-visibility murals in Chicago; his signature style, dense, black-and-white graphite drawings and paintings built from geometric patterns, optical illusions, and fractured space, collides cartoon aesthetics and surreal imagery, drawing on vintage animation and the pattern-heavy visual culture of his 1980s childhood, and he cites the Chicago Imagist movement as a direct influence.
- Drew Dzurko is a 2023 NIU BFA graduate completing his MFA, known for photographic work exploring instability, transformation, and the tension between collapse and renewal, and a co-founder of Lumen Photography Studios.
- Jeremy Tinder and his ARTS 436: Special Topics in Illustration: Comics course will be designing additional recycled boats and silhouettes for the windows.
The mural is located in the Holmes Student Center in G25 of the Student Leadership area across from Starbucks.
Join in on the Mural Reception from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Monday, October 5. Mural painting will take place from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., and visitors are invited to join in.
Another session will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6. Ling-Yu Chou, visiting assistant professor of visual arts education, and NAEA Art Education students will be present to assist with the painting.
Painting sessions will also be held Wednesday, October 7 from noon to 4 p.m., and are being scheduled for Thursday, October 8 and Friday, October 9. Check the Homecoming Events calendar for updates on those times.
Students from Tinder’s class are prepping the outline of the mural outline this week.
See if you can spot the nods to students and college life at NIU, as well as DeKalb native Cindy Crawford, and School of Art and Design alum Dan Castellaneta, best known as the voice of Homer Simpson.
The mural project is a collaboration between the School of Art and Design, Student Affairs and Student Involvement who were instrumental in successfully earning a Homecoming grant. Facilities Management and Campus Services played an important role in the project, as well.
The Homecoming mural serves as somewhat of a preview for the upcoming spring show in the NIU Art Museum. The style of the mural is inspired by works of the Chicago Imagists that make up the centerpiece of NIU’s Student Association Art Collection, which will be featured in the Art Museum next semester.
