Nate Christopher spent his summer doing his favorite thing - creating art.

"I thought the idea of spending my entire summer getting paid to make art sounded awesome," the senior visual communication design major said.

Christopher, along with five other UD students, spent their summer in the UD Student Artist-in-Residence (AiR) program, which enlists student artists to create artwork for permanent installation in residence halls.

Each artist addresses a problem area in a residence hall, and Christopher, a returning artist from last year's program, was assigned VWK. His artwork consists of four large panels, creating one giant image, resides in the lobby area of the sophomore dorm.

The artists in AiR learned to make art in a different way this summer.

"One of the main lessons is how to make commissioned artwork for a public space," Christopher said. "It is totally different from making art for a class or for your personal benefit."

He not only thought about what he wanted to paint, but who he was creating art for.

"For the student artists it's a really great opportunity to give back to the students in the place students live," Susan Byrnes, ArtStreet director, said. "The artists get to think what it was like to live in Marycrest, Marianist and these residence halls, and make it more of an inviting living space."

The AiR program is in its second year and it's an innovative partnership of the department of visual arts, ArtStreet, and Residential Services. A faculty group guides students through a process of site analysis, research, model making, proposal preparation, and art-making.

Though they have the support of the faculty, Byrnes said the students design their own ideas and have the opportunity to work intensely on their projects for the duration of the program.

"For the student artists, it's a huge professional development opportunity, because they are not in a classroom setting when they do this," Byrnes said.

The students kept a picture blog of their progress. Check it out at http://air08.blogspot.com.

In 12 weeks, Christopher's sketches turned into paintings. He started by scanning his final sketches into a computer and projecting the images onto the 7 ft. by 3.5 ft. panels to use as a painting guide.

Christopher picked up his first paintbrush when he was a kid and never looked back.

"Even as a kid, I never wanted to be president or an astronaut or be in the NBA," he said. "I just want to keep making art for the rest of my life."