Slow Look Reflection

As we began our tour of the Raclin Murphy Art Museum this morning, I definitely did not think that I would be pushed to think deeply about how art can be related to our direct lives, especially ones that we are soon going to encounter when we are working in the business world. This was my first time attending the museum, and I was really blown away by some of the pieces of art the museum has acquired in such a short amount of time. As we are inching closer to the museum’s one year anniversary of being opened, it was really cool to see how it has come together, and how everything was laid out. I feel that art museum’s have a purposeful design in terms of the location of their pieces, and it was cool to see how the contrast between different pieces of art were laid out on the tour.

About 10-15 minutes into the tour we were asked to stand by a piece that we did not understand, or did not feel like it belonged in the museum. The artwork that caught my eye for this question was called “Red Flags.” Upon initial sighting, this work of art to me just seemed like an orange colored linen type of flag, and did not stand out to me as an impressive piece of art. We were challenged to write down our thoughts on the piece, and sit there and study it for about 10-15 minutes in silence, individually. There was a pretty large group of people from class that also chose the same piece I did, which made me feel that a lot of people had the same initial thoughts I did when first looking at the painting. After the first few minutes of analyzing the piece, I described what I thought about it, and then read the description. After reading the description on the art piece, I learned that the coloring was made from the soil in Indiana, and it was supposed to be an all natural piece of art. This helped me understand why it was in the museum in the first place, and its importance to the museum. Andy Goldsworthy, the artist of the canvas, made 50 of these during Covid, one for each state. He traveled and captured soil from each of the states to make sure that each individual piece had its own unique features and color. After garnering more of an understanding of why the painting was there, it made me try and put myself into Goldsworthy’s shoes and think of why he made this piece and what the meaning behind it was. The first word that came to my mind was simplicity. I believe that he had intent behind making this piece so simple, and I believe that he overall tied in the simplicity of his work to the simplicity of planet earth, and what it is made up of. Soil is one of earth’s most natural productions, and backs up that thought of how something so simple can also be complex. This piece came out during Covid, and it could be related to reminding people in such a tough time how beautiful our planet can be. There are many interpretations of what Goldworthy could have been thinking, and that aligns with the beauty of what art is. 

As we wrapped up our tour, our final activity was a 20-25 minute discussion with the group on what we saw in the painting and how we interpreted it during our observations. As we moved through the discussion, our moderator asked us how we could relate this to class and how our experience at the museum could be related to our experiences in our work or in the business world. I related studying this piece of art to a tough project in the sense of understanding why we are completing it, and what value it has that pertains to the company upon completion. In addition to this, I related my initial struggle of understanding the piece to not judging a book or a person by its cover. The artwork’s meaning is way deeper than even the knowledge I have now, and this directly correlates to group work with co-workers, as we may not know them well, but cannot be too quick to judge people who have different backgrounds. We have to learn how to work with all types of people in order to be successful, and the more and more we learn about them could positively impact our work, and how we are able to work with them knowing some of their strengths and weaknesses. Taking the approach of making an effort to know your co-workers can also make for a more enjoyable time working on the project, and can lead to a positive innovation of ideas. I am grateful for my first experience in the Raclin Museum, and definitely want to make the time to take another tour and see more pieces of art.