This summer, the walls in the basement of the Sigma Chi house became one artist’s canvas—a canvas that now holds the very first paintings of an art major.
Before this May, senior art major Tommy Lundberg had never picked up a paintbrush. However, a visitor to the house would never know that the Detroit Tigers, Patagonia and Batman logos on the wall are the work of a first-time painter.
“I have been drawing since kindergarten and became serious about art in middle school,” he said. “But this is the first time I have ever painted anything.”
“There’s definitely a common theme in Tommy’s work,” said senior and fellow Sigma Chi John Flo. “It’s definitely almost a comic book style. The reason why he’s good is because he’s really good at drawing clean, straight, well-defined lines,
so all his work is really well- contoured. That’s probably the foundation of his art.”
Lundberg said his project began on a whim. He moved into the house in May after the semester finished and began to clean up the house and paint the walls, a project that inspired him to continue painting.
picking up a paintbrush shows his natural ability.
“He can translate between mediums and be versatile, which is proof that he’ll be a successful artist,” Flo
said. Most of Lundberg’s paintings
are replicated logos such as the Detroit Tigers, Patagonia, the
Detroit Lions and the Coca- Cola logos. Lundberg said he enjoys taking things from the past such as logos and changing
their environment and occasion- ally altering their words. The Patagonia logo on the wall reads “Fratagonia.”
“He puts a re- ally fun, creative
twist on things, like ‘Fratagonia’ and ‘Fratman,’” Flo said. “It’s just fun art. Nothing is super complex and he does a good job making things as simple as they need to be while still making things impressive and appeal- ing.”
“It was nice to have a whole area at my disposal,” Lundberg said. “Doing this will also help the house to be treated nicer and it will give it a longer life.”
Lundberg didn’t produce any thumbnail sketches and primar- ily painted the logos freehand, simply seeing an idea in his head and then producing it on the wall.
I have a good eye for propor- tions,” he said. “I just see some- thing and make it. I have been producing art enough that I trust my ability. Of course, sometimes I mess up and get very upset.”
The whole project took about two-and-a-half months, with a few all-nighters in the middle. This semester, Lundberg will be taking his first painting class. He has already gotten a few requests for some work and has begun advertising on a Facebook page.
“I have the ability to get in the zone and I can’t stop,” Lundberg said. “Being an artist, that is a good personality trait to have.”
