Polk Art Museum

I went to the Polk Museum of Art for this assignment, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes. I actually stayed there longer and if I had had time I would have liked to stay even longer than I did. I had forgotten how much I actually do love museums and going and getting lost in the midst of the history, art, or whatever it is. I live about an hour away from Washington D.C. where there are museums that you could visit for a month and still feel like you missed something so I’ve acquired a liking for museums. Though I didn’t realize how valuable going to a museum and partaking in all of it actually is. As I was walking around the museum I just kept thinking to myself, here I am in the midst of all this history and art that I didn’t even really know existed right around the corner from my school. It’s culture that we can be exposed to but yet we don’t take the chance to look it up or take the time to go visit it and get lost in all of it for an afternoon. I love looking at art and having it provoke emotion in me as I look at it and dissect what it is and what it represents. This happened to me many times today and I was filled with many different emotions. I was happy looking at some pictures, sad looking at others, and wondrous looking at others. There was one from the student gallery that stuck out to me and it was the I will make you hurt piece of art by Maranda Roudabush. She had taken a face of metal and sown a piece of the face back to the rest of the face with metal wiring, it had nails in it, and just looked mangled. As I looked at it closer there was writing on half of the face talking about feeling the pain of their flesh tearing apart and it was just heart wrenching to read. I wondered about the artist that did this and if she ever really felt this pain and if she did I wanted to sit and listen to her story. I want to understand her pain and from looking at her art work that’s what it did a little for me. This is what I love about going to art museums, you almost step into the artists world by standing in silence and figuring out their art work. My favorite though, had to be the hall upstairs of the “A camera’s – eye view: Our Material World: A Global Family Portrait.” This hall put things into perspective more than I’ve ever had them put into perspective for me. It told stories of families around the world and their living conditions, their family interactions, their hopes for the future, and what they valued most. I’ve never had so much culture contained in one small space like that and it evoked so much emotion in me. It evoked motion to be both thankful for what I have; and emotion to move and do something. Give away what I have and bless others by meeting their needs… so much emotion in just one small hall way, so much as to change a life almost.

They look into my eyes an

d yet I can say nothing bac

k to them..

I have no words to offer…

I wish I could give them ha

lf of what I have but I know

that’s not all that they nee

d, they need more than what

I can give them. Maybe I co

uld give to someone who is

over there helping them al

ready? But who is over there

?

Maybe I am to go,

Maybe I’m the one to help,

Maybe I’m the change that

has to evoke it in others.

But where do I start??

By just looking at the

pictures I see what they

need, but I won’t ev

er fully know what th

ey need unless I meet

them face to face. Hear

their voices speak the

reality of their world.

Their life is so differ

ent from mine but

as I see them I fee

l like I can hear the

ir cries through the

pictures.. if only I c

ould move out of

this state of shock to

help where I could,

maybe then this hall

wouldn’t be so shock

ing…