“Who is S.A.M.? S.A.M. needs a friend. Join him for milk and cookies!” These phrases, along with photos of two children, can be found on advertisements for senior in art and design Michael Lundberg’s solo show in Gallery 181 of the Design Building.

Lundberg’s exhibit, “S.A.M.,” or Simulated Art and Medicine, features a variety of artwork including paintings, drawings, photography and three-dimensional designs. Following an opening reception today from 5:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., the exhibit will remain on display until Saturday.

Lundberg said she tries to combine visual media in her art.

“They all work together. I use photographs for a lot of my paintings,” Lundberg said. “I’m trying to work paintings into photographs. The show is … it’s going to be interesting.”

Lundberg said that the inner-workings of the human and animal form find their way into her artwork.

“I really do like anatomy — I like muscles and all the different anatomical structures,” Lundberg said. “I was looking at anatomy books and started noticing how these all geometricized and how they can all make abstract compositions. I took that representational background that I had drilled into me for my first year of design school. I applied both ideas with that abstracted quality.”

Lundberg also said that one should do research on the subject before beginning a project.

“I just believe that if you’re going to do abstract, you have to understand, especially with the anatomy-based things, what’s going on with the human body,” Lundberg said. “You have to understand what’s going on with animals, and you have to understand them, too.

“I honestly believe that you have to know your subject before you draw them,” Lundberg said. “You can’t just say, ‘I like horses, so I’m going to draw a horse.’ I think you have to know what the horse is all about.”

In addition to anatomy-based paintings and drawings, Lundberg said she is interested in experimenting with a more tactile form of artwork.

“Another thing I’ve been doing is I like to play with toys, which is how this whole idea of S.A.M. [came about],” Lundberg said. “The little kid [on the advertisement] kind of represents toys, youth, how adults always want to be younger again. One way is they always want to have new toys, whether it be a new car or a new computer.

“I’m interested in making some of my new concepts artwork you can play with,” she added. “But the person, when you see it, says, ‘Oh, it’s artwork,’ and ‘Oh, you can flip it around and touch it.’ But at the same time they’re, ‘It’s artwork. I shouldn’t touch it.’ So they’re constantly being pulled back and forth between toy and art, and toy and art.”

Lundberg added that she feels some of her artwork has been misunderstood.

“In a lot of ways, the public have been pushed away because they don’t understand what’s going on,” Lundberg said. “When it seems like you’ve given something to someone else, suddenly they’re able to understand, too.”

Among Lundberg’s influences are three of her friends, Katrina Chu, Jeremy Rudd and Nick Tann.

“My friends drive me … I see what they’re doing and I ask myself, ‘How can I apply it to what I’m doing?’ We forget that our peers are just as much of an influence,” she said.

Lundberg’s work has appeared in many university-level exhibits. She has also been commissioned to design a poster for a national horse show. Lundberg is excited about designing the poster because she says she has quite a bit of artistic freedom with the project.

While Lundberg has had many successes in the art world, she still feels she has room for improvement.

“I think that I’m still growing as an artist,” Lundberg said. “Eventually I hope that I can become an artist, but until then, I’ll just keep on my path of trying to succeed.”