Grant making CSB alum's large-scale permanent ceramic installation in BAC possible

Desi Murphy said her time as a student at the College of Saint Benedict helped shape the artist she is today.

So the 2004 graduate is thrilled to have the opportunity to create and install her work in a prominent place on campus.

"My formal education and the foundation of my value system were built during my years at Saint Ben's," said Murphy, who now owns and operates Desi Murphy Pottery, a commercial ceramics studio in nearby St. Cloud. "Making art that holds these values feels like I'm giving back to the community that has given me so much. It feels like there's a deeper connection taking place. Like the art itself holds the values of the Benedictine community. To me, the impact feels considerable."

Murphy's piece - entitled "Resonance" - will be a large-scale permanent ceramic installation featuring 50-plus hand-built rectangular prisms that will be installed in the Benedicta Arts Center - a building that serves as the hub for music, drama and the arts on campus.

Each piece will be hand-formed and arranged in an abstract pattern resembling resonance sound waves. The work symbolizes not only the impact arts have on campus, but how the artistic experiences housed in the BAC have impacted the surrounding municipalities as well.

"Resonance was imagined as a dual concept artwork," Murphy said. "It's an abstract pattern of two sound waves, which represents the creative energy of the arts resonating and reverberating through the College of Saint Benedict out into the surrounding community.

"The second concept of community is represented in the way the two sound waves move - the sound waves begin to separate, then intertwine and overlap and finally emerge together - symbolizing how the Benedictine value of community gradually becomes part of our individual values and, ultimately, we become the community. Both concepts are important to the overall symbolism of the piece."

The project is made possible thanks to a public art grant of $14,854 the school recently received from the Central Minnesota Arts Board.

College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University Gallery manager Becky Pflueger said she had the idea to work with Murphy after seeing the 26-piece ceramic wall installation the artist recently created for her high school alma mater, St. Cloud Tech.

When Murphy got in touch and expressed the desire to create something at her college alma mater, everything began to line up.

"I saw an article on the piece Desi did at Tech," Pflueger said. "And, without talking to me, she was already thinking about how she'd like to do something here. So when she emailed me, the synchronicity was perfect. She was originally thinking about the Gorecki Center, but I asked her if I could show her this wall (in the BAC). We had a meeting, walked over here and she thought it was perfect.

"The architecture of the building, the way the boards and lights run, is very similar to the design she was working with at Tech."

Murphy will build the project over the summer and fall in her studio. She's scheduled to deliver it to the BAC in December. Installation is expected to take place over Christmas break, meaning the piece will be ready in time for the "Art Through the Decades: A Celebration of Alumni Art Majors" show scheduled for next January.

That show will celebrate the BAC's 60^th anniversary and the more than 700 art majors who have passed through the building's halls over that time.

"This piece will be a beautiful way to highlight another art major that we have and to really take that show out of the gallery and expand it to the whole building," Pflueger said.

Murphy said the BAC has long been one of her favorite places, dating back to her days as a student at CSB. Now, she is grateful to have the opportunity to create something that will become a lasting part of the building's atmosphere.

"From art exhibitions to classes, I spent the majority of my academic time within the walls of the BAC," she said. "This space holds a special place in my heart. I remember registering for early morning art classes in the BAC, because I knew that art was the best way to wake me up in the morning.

"The space is like a blank canvas - it's a large 24-foot-by-24-foot wall surrounded by natural light and beautiful modern architecture," she continued. "My artwork is modern minimalism, which is clean, refined and plays well with the architecture of the building. The vision of the artwork, the concept and the space work quite well together."

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