By Noah Raven, communications intern
As an artist, Ebet Lansing uses all the tools available to her. For a recent project, that included her car.
Lansing ‘22, a studio art major from Atlanta, recently completed a series of murals for Burrito Hub, a restaurant in downtown Spartanburg. The restaurant provided a scaffold for her, but ground was uneven and she was hesitant to use it.
“For the first two sections of the wall I just parked my car as close as I could and stood on top of it because I was way too scared to use the scaffold,” Lansing says. “For the last section I decided to brave the scaffolding.”
Lansing began drawing when she was in middle school. Both of her grandfathers were artists and they encouraged her to give painting a try.
“I started in my freshman year of high school and immediately fell in love with it,” says Lansing. “But this was my first mural. I had no experience painting anything bigger than a 3-by-5 foot painting, and even that felt huge to me. There were three murals total, and each one was 15-by-20 feet. Burrito Hub really put all their faith in me.”
Burrito Hub owners Hugo Montanez and Antonietta Badra wanted to decorate the walls so people would feel more comfortable walking down the alley toward their parking lot.
“We also loved the idea that people could come and take pictures with the mural,” says Badra.
Montanez and Badra had difficulty finding an artist. A friend of Lansing’s who was helping the owners with their social media pointed them in her direction.
Lansing began designing the murals in October. The first splash of paint went on the fall the first week of Thanksgiving break.
“I got the first section of it done in four days,” Lansing says. “The second part took three days, and then I had to go home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I did the final section in four days in January. The entire process took about 14 days total.”
Lansing turned to the Wofford community for support down the homestretch.
“My friends were back at Wofford finally, so I had them come down and bring me coffee when it was cold,” she says. “As long as the sun was out, I was up there painting.”
Montanez and Badra were impressed by Lansing’s hard work.
“Even in January when it got cold, she would stay out painting until it got dark,” Montanez says.
Lansing recently launched a website (www.ebetart.wordpress.com) to feature her artwork, including the murals. She hopes to continue painting murals, and her first experience has already led to more work.
“On my second day of painting, I was standing on top of my car and a woman walked up to me and asked if I painted murals professionally,” Lansing says. “She owns the store across the street and offered me a commission to paint a mural on her wall. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue these kinds of jobs in the future.”