Field Trip

I went to the Polk Museum of Art and stayed there for at least 40 minutes. 

 I was actually really excited about this field trip. I have lived in Lakeland for seven years and have never been to the Polk Museum of Art. The museum had an amazing collection of paintings and sculptures and I was extremely impressed with their huge variety. 

 I have been to many art museums before but when going to this one I had a different mindset. I found myself really analyzing every painting; the colors, shapes, brush strokes. I took art during high school and being at the museum brought back good memories. My teacher always challenged us to look beyond what we saw. While I was examining the paintings and remembering what my art teacher used to tell us I realized something. This is the same technique that Professor Corrigan has been teaching us this year: to look beyond what we see in literature. Once we get back out first impression or our first reading of the text, we can analyze the piece and really get something deeper out of it. It was interesting applying what we have been learning in class on this field trip. I feel as though this whole year we have been encouraged to think outside the box and view things from a new and different angle. I tried to use the same techniques we have learned on analyzing at the museum. Instead of merely examining the painting as a work of art, I tried to think of the artist and what he/she was thinking when creating their piece. This really made me see pieces in a whole new light. 

 I found examining the paintings and sculptures in this way to be intriguing. You take so much more away when you really examine not only the artwork, but the story behind it. 

One of the abstract pieces I was examining inspired this poem. I was taking in all the colors and shapes and analyzing the technique the artist was using. There was something about the piece that was very vulnerable to me. It was like a part of the artist was there. Being an artist myself, I felt as if I could really relate to what I was looking at. It was a beautiful form of expression and there was something rather spiritual about it. 

   You stare inside my soul

   For once I'm completely vulnerable

   take away all the excess colors

   wash away the stains until everything

   is bare, transparent. 

  You lift your hand and

 gently move, back and forth

creating something new

Silence takes 

over and beauty seeps in

slowly capturing my attention

and breaking down every

wall until there's nothing

left but You and me.