Local artist, Eric Clausen, working on the mural in the second stairwell in The Fogelman College of Business and Economics. Clausen was one of several artists hired by associate professor of Art Cedar Lorca Nordbye to complete the murals.
A sea of blue with bumble bees and hands cupping sunflower seeds. Influential faces of inventors with their inventions floating overhead.
Local artist, Eric Clausen, working on the mural in the second stairwell in The Fogelman College of Business and Economics. Clausen was one of several artists hired by associate professor of Art Cedar Lorca Nordbye to complete the murals.
One stairwell of three with paintings of these sits under construction behind a tarp and a small piece of wood holding the door closed.
Cedar Lorca Nordbye, an associate professor of art at the University of Memphis, was commissioned to create these works of art.
“It’s been pretty magical for me as an artist,†Nordbye said.
Local artist, Eric Clausen, working on the mural in the second stairwell in The Fogelman College of Business and Economics. Clausen was one of several artists hired by associate professor of Art Cedar Lorca Nordbye to complete the murals.
Nordbye said it was the vision of Dean Rajiv Grover of The Fogelman College of Business and Economics.
“The dean’s only desire was for the stairwells to address a theme of sustainability and ethics,†Nordbye said. “For the murals to nudge the college in the direction of caring about the future, people, and social justice.â€
Nordbye proposed a budget that was approved to hire a team to help him complete full-scale murals in three stairwells in the Fogelman building on campus.
“He never said ‘show me a design or you must include this’,†Nordbye said. “It was really a lot of trust. The dean is a wonderful, unheard of, art patron.â€
Nordbye hired local artists Eric Clausen, Carey Stevens, Tara Boudreau, Nelson Gutierrez and art students Laura Lawson, Terrance Mason, Annalee Elmore and Jeff Carter as his team.
“It’s supposed to turn people towards helping others,†Elmore said. “It’s really important in today’s individualistic society.â€
Elmore is a 20-year-old student of Art and Psychology at the University of Memphis.
“It’s like an adventure walking through the stairwells,†Carter said. “It feels like you’re in an ocean.†Carter, 19, is a sophomore graphic design major who heard about the mural and approached Nordbye wanting to contribute.
“I did it to push my boundaries and learn new techniques,†Carter said. “It shows the campus cares about what it looks like and about giving back to the community.â€
Nordbye said in the first mural the water drops, bees and ants all represent little things doing big things when added up in numbers.
“It’s to empower students to think about how they can create change because too often we think the problems of the world are too big and we’re so small,†Nordbye said. “But together if we all do little things, we can change big things.â€
The first mural is complete, the second is currently under construction and the third is not yet underway.
“The second mural is about inventors and entrepreneurs who have channeled their skills of invention into servants of humanity, applying their thinking to real world problems,†Nordbye said.
The project manager of the mural is Annette Webb McNeal, administrative associate in the Dean’s office of The Fogelman College.
“A lot of times when people see murals or public art, they generally think one person did that,†Clausen, a local artist, said. “But, it’s a collective.â€
“I’ve been painting filler things like bubbles and wood structures,†Carter said. “I’m also coming up on a composition for illustrating Elon Musk’s SpaceX.â€
Several pieces of the mural are first created on poly sheets then sealed to the wall by hand.
“The murals are important because of the educational content,†Gutierrez said. “It’s more than beautification.â€
Gutierrez, a 47-year-old from Bogota, Columbia, is an artist who’s only been in Memphis for one year since his wife started working for ALSAC.
“It’s hard to find work sometimes as an artist,†Clausen said. “It’s nice to work on a pretty big project that is challenging.â€
Nordbye said he is also seeking funding to construct a few murals in the juvenile court downtown, per Judge Dan Michael’s vision, and use the same art team from this project.
“All of the money for this mural came from private donors to The Fogelman College,†Nordbye said. “None of the funding came from tuition, student fees or state funds.â€
Nordbye can be reached at 901.647.5293 or cnordbye@memphis. edu.
