Slow: Eleven Women and 400 Daisies (2010)

Artist: Ted Noten
Title: Slow: Eleven Women and 400 Daisies (2010)
Location: Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte, North Carolina

First Impression

When I first saw this sculpture, I wasn't drawn to the flowers. I found myself looking past them, searching for the face beneath. The daisies were beautiful, but they also seemed to conceal something. I stood there wondering why I was more interested in what was hidden than what was visible.

That question stayed with me long after I walked away.

The Reflection

What We Choose to Cover Up

We have a lot of quiet truths that carry with us as individuals. And surprisingly, it’s not always meant to deceive. We love to adorn ourselves with that demonstrate beauty, right? For example, we cover ourselves with things like accomplishments to cover up vulnerability. We cover ourselves with “busyness” to cover up loneliness. We wear confidence to disguise uncertainty. And as such, these things become versions of who we are and adopt identities that others can recognize.

So, for me, the flowers here don’t represent beauty necessarily. They represent how we want to cover or disguise ourselves to others to hide what we truly feel. With awareness, we find a way to remove our masks to expose the person we truly are, that which we hide from others. Think of looking in the mirror. Awareness, like a mirror, forces us to see things as they truly are. When we live a mindful life, we attempt to understand more clearly all of the stories behind the different disguises (or flowers, like those in the sculpture) we’ve collected. Doing so doesn’t require us to throw them away, but simply to reflect on them. One of the most significant acts of awareness allows us to be who we are and not be afraid to let others know who we truly are and how we got here.

One Question to Carry With You

What have you allowed people to know about you... and what part of yourself is still waiting beneath the flowers?