Distractions come in many forms. Every day in class, the 24-down clue in the crossword calls to me.

It doesn’t matter that the professor is lecturing in front of 300 students. The crossword puzzle squares demand to be filled.

And even though I rarely answer even one clue, the crossword manages to distract me for the entire hour.

In Kildee Hall’s Lush Auditorium, the distraction is hanging on the walls.

One day I arrived to meteorology class to be greeted with some of the ugliest artwork I’ve ever seen. These mysterious murals appear to be the creation of some farmer high on meth with a paintbrush as his only weapon.

The two paintings, one on each wall, have various people, objects and places representing animal science at Iowa State.

And from the looks of these murals, agriculture at Iowa State is nothing more than a pig, former president Martin Jischke and the Campanile with yellow stars drawn by the average 6-year-old.

Centered in each mural is a head— a head that appears to be floating.

Each mural has a large man’s head with no body or even a neck staring down at the animal science majors in Kildee Hall.

I’m sure that this strange man depicted on the painting is someone of importance.

But I was too freaked out by the enormous head to get close enough to read the small gold plaque under it.

I stared at these paintings for a long time. I couldn’t stop staring.

And before I knew it, class was over. Nothing learned.

But a lot of questions about agricultural artwork remained unanswered.

After this traumatic experience, I noticed another larger-than-life agricultural mural in Kildee Hall.

A farm-focused mural, “Balance of Life” by Ned Smyth, is as disturbing as the paintings in Lush Auditorium.

The white, black and gold mural spreads across several walls and features a giant hog, three people weighing a calf and blue rooster.

The three people are supposed to represent a student (the girl wearing boots), a professor and a breeder.

A breeder?

The breeder is the person who visits the farm with a supply of semen to artificial inseminate the cattle- an important part of every farm.

But should this elite group of workers be on the same mural with a rooster, dinner plate and a hog the size of the Iowa State Fair’s biggest boar?

I’m not the most artistic person in the world, so I went to the university museum Web site looking for some answers.

In the artist’s notes located online, Smyth said he wanted to “take everyday images and blow them up to a monumental scale . The images would become greater than life, helping to reveal the importance and reverence of what is taking place with the building.”

To be frank, the large animals scare me.

A double-headed Holstein cow isn’t the most pleasant thing to greet ISU students.

I’m not saying all paintings about rural and farm life are awful.

Grant Wood’s murals are examples of great artwork featuring fields of corn and wheat.

He must be rolling over in his grave seeing his historical artwork located in the same areas as these agricultural painting mess-ups.

So all this thinking about ag-focused art has led me to one conclusion – agriculture is the one part of society that shouldn’t be reflected into art.

Leave the straw, pigs and silos on farm. There is no place for them in the world of art.

Michelle Kann is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Garnavillo. She is the newsroom managing editor for the Daily.