Student artist Morgan McKinney ’12 reveals vision behind mural uniting politics and art

If you have visited Pendleton lately you have undoubtedly been struck by the building's newest addition: a colorful mural that spans the majority of the wall in Pendleton Atrium. The mural was painted by Morgan McKinney '12, a political science major, and depicts the pursuit of justice in American history as a collage. The mural contains such images as a Democratic donkey and Republican elephant, a symbolic rendering of Plato's "The Republic," a trio of multicultural "Rosies," and a myriad of American protesters, bearing signs with messages such as "I Am A Woman" and "Arizona State Bill 1070."

McKinney is attempting to incorporate fine arts into the everyday environment. "It's a kind of worldwide initiative. It's not really established," McKinney said. Her goal was to encourage people to think a little more deeply about the pursuit of justice. "I wanted to be as non-biased as possible, and have the viewer be intellectually stimulated, free to develop his or her opinion regarding the topic. And hopefully, as they encounter more of a political science curriculum, they'll be able to understand the symbolism on a deeper level."

McKinney's extensive political science background provided the foundation for such a piece. She explained how, while taking courses about Plato and Machiavelli, her artist's mind caused her to visualize images related to these ideas. "I was taking courses about different government systems; what makes a just government system, how to fight a corrupt system, what policies are good policies. And I kept visualizing different things in my mind, like the fox and the lion for Machiavelli, and other images that matched these ideas." Once McKinney had these images in her mind, she began making rough sketches and mapping out her ideas, browsing the Internet and other reference material for some of the images she wanted to use. A laughing McKinney describes one of the roadblocks accompanying such a task: "For Plato's Republic, I couldn't find a picture of anyone in chains [online]. So I put on a bed sheet, got some chains we had in the basement, and asked my parents to take some photos of me. You can tell it's basically me in the painting. Part of art is that it's very difficult to find models, especially if you're going to be showing some skin. So I tend to do a lot of my reference photos."

McKinney spent the majority of her last summer vacation painting the mural, while working at an internship in Washington D.C. McKinney spent entire days just painting and working; with good-natured bitterness, she talked about "hitting the wall" (losing her creative energy), which happens to anyone working on a long-term project: "You start out, and you're like ‘Yeah! This is awesome! I could work forever!' And then you realize how much is left, and how much you've done already…What I ended up doing was I ended up taking more breaks. Music helps, just keeping yourself entertained, or even just reminding yourself what you're doing this for. I did have a definite deadline…and just the fact that I love art. I love it so much that I could paint constantly, but even too much of something you love can be difficult. I do really want to be a well-known artist someday, or at least improve, and you're not going to improve unless you push yourself. And once you're finally finished, I mean, the feeling is just great."

Conscious of her audience, McKinney decided on a bright collage in which various topics, including globalization, political theory versus politics in practice, same-gender marriage and segregation, are represented. She will discuss her painting at the Ruhlman Conference on April 27, where she will talk more about the actual political content of her piece. However, now that she is done, McKinney is enjoying basking in the amazing feeling of having completed her project. "It's what I've been waiting for. I've wanted to see it up for so long. On a personal level, it's great to see it up and done and completed, because it takes a while to put the individual pieces together. But you also get the personal satisfaction of sharing it with other people, and the satisfaction that maybe other people did enjoy it, and that maybe I did start an academic discussion or a debate this semester. I was told that a girl was looking at the painting with her boyfriend, and they looked at the part with the "Segregated Schools Must Stop Now!" sign. Her boyfriend turned to her and said, ‘Wellesley is a segregated school', and it sparked a huge debate. I like to think that this piece is stirring up discussions. I mean, I think it turned out well, and hopefully other people think so too."