By Samantha Barry, news correspondent

Northeastern students attending HUBweek over the weekend may have recognized one of the painted shipping containers to be similar to a mural in Ryder Hall. Both were designed by Sophia Ainslie, an associate teaching professor in the art and design department.

Ainslie was commissioned by the Director of Art and Creative Initiatives at HUBweek, Leonie Bradbury, to paint a mural for Boston’s third annual festival celebrating art, science and technology. Bradbury was familiar with Ainslie’s work, so she gave her complete artistic freedom to produce whatever image she wanted.

“It’s part of a series I have been working on for nine years,” Ainslie said. “I’ve been working with a single X-ray based on an abdomen, so all the colored shapes come from organs or spaces between organs, but they are all based on the body. Over the years I’ve been selective and have been fragmenting the body into its separate parts and then painting each element a particular color.”

The series is called “Fragments” and focuses on specific shapes, marks and colors. Once the final sketches of the image were completed, Ainslie projected it onto the shipping container, traced it and then began painting.

Bradbury asked her to complete the mural in five days, so Ainslie enlisted the help of five student volunteers who had previously taken a class with her at Northeastern. She reached out to students whom she knew had painting experience and would be able to control the paint in the specific way she wanted.

“I totally fell in love with painting after taking Sophia’s class,” said Roya Paydarfar, a fourth-year design major who jumped at the chance to work with Ainslie. “Ever since taking her class I’ve always admired her as an artist and wanted to know more about her process.”

Ainslie left a strong impression on her students and every volunteer she reached out to was more than willing to give up their time to assist.

“For me, it was a no-brainer,” said Fernanda Hurtado Ortiz, a fifth-year journalism student, about taking off work to help Ainslie. “I would not get paid to volunteer for Sophia any day. It was the right decision and I loved it.”

Both took Ainslie’s 2D foundations class, which focuses heavily on elements of painting. The other three volunteers, Alexander Langrock, Emily Mui and Stephanie Stumbur, were unavailable to comment.

Working with each other outside of the classroom gave Ainslie and her volunteers the opportunity to connect on a new level. Ainslie said she enjoyed the absence of a teacher-student hierarchy. Instead, they were all just artists working toward a common goal.

“It would be great if we could just always do this,” she said. “You know, if we could get a bus and just travel around making murals together forever.”

Paydarfar said she enjoyed spending time with her former teacher, since Ainslie was instrumental in helping her figure out her career.

“She really left like a really lasting impact on me,” said Paydarfar.  “I wanted to give back to Sophia for everything that she did for me.”

While Hurtado Ortiz also admires Ainslie as a teacher, artist and person, one of the rewarding parts for her was feeling connected to her school.

“I’m on co-op right now and I haven’t had any classes on campus in a while, so one of the things I loved about this was that it was such a connection to Northeastern,” she said.

Ainslie and her volunteers were all proud of the work they had accomplished when they set their brushes down on the last painting day.

“I was happy with it and like it in its environment,” Ainslie said. “It was surrounded by these enormous, monumental, heavy and cold buildings. There’s a lot of concrete in that area, a lot of gray color, and so having these pops of graffiti and graphic mark and color and organicness stood out and made it all work well together.”

The installation may be one of the last in Ainslie’s “Fragments” series. After exploring her X-ray inspiration for nearly a decade, she said she feels it may be time to move on to something new. While she has just about exhausted her current theme, she has no idea what her future projects will be.

“An end is coming,” she said. “I’m a little lost in space right now. I’m floating in a space of complete unknown. This moment is scary because it’s been so long since I have been in this unknown place. There’s this sense of not knowing what’s coming, which is scary, but I am trying to make it exciting.”