By Andrew J. Barnes ’12
THE ROUNDUP
When he was young, Tyler Thompson ’12 used art as a hobby.
But since arriving at Brophy, art has become a huge part of his life.
“I have been doing fine arts forever,” Thompson said. “And more so since I started going to Brophy because there have been more opportunities to do art.”
When Thompson was younger, his brother, Chris Thompson ’00, was attending Brophy, and his influence inspired Tyler Thompson to do art.
“He started letting me play around with his art stuff, and I made a few things,” Tyler Thompson said.
Thompson uses many mediums within his art, including pastels, graphite, charcoal, pen and ink, oil paintings, graphic design, digital illustrations/paintings and 3D modeling.
Thompson said his favorite medium would be pastel or pen and ink because they are “fun to do and give you interesting results that look very good.”
Besides doing art work in class and on the side, Thompson has been involved in theater since freshman year, and he has been creating artwork for the posters for upcoming plays, most recently for Ms. Dorothy Dunnion’s production of “Death of a Salesman.”
“They wanted it to look very depressing and dark,” Thompson said. “I wanted to design it with a savior who looked defeated.”
According to Thompson, there is a skull drawn in the poster underneath the salesman’s hat but after printing it was difficult to see this detail.
Thompson also wanted to “have (the salesman) shrouded in shadows and dust, but have sort of a light above him to leave for interpretation.”
Along with drawing the artwork for plays, Thompson has also been the student artistic director for all the Brophy theater productions and has helped design many of the productions’ sets.
“He is a talented artist,” said technical theater director Mr. Ron Douglas. “The students look to him to help create artistic sides to our sets.”
When a show is actually running, Thompson serves as the stage manager or is involved somehow with the crew backstage.
“Much of his input goes into our shows,” Mr. Douglas said. “I wish I had him around more often to help.”
Chris Thompson, who was the artistic director for theater during his Brophy career, inspired Tyler Thompson to get involved backstage as well.
For Thompson, art may be currently a huge part of his life but he doesn’t see it turning into a career when he’s older.
“I don’t see it becoming a career for me. But I will certainly continue to do it as a hobby, and I might do it as part-time work on the side,” he said.