Understanding Art: Timeless, Experiential, Expressive

• Art is timeless, spanning generations and continents.
• Artistic age is not a factor in determining if it is art.
• Art is considered beautiful, not just because it is old, but because it possesses inherent aesthetic qualities.
• Art is enjoyed by people regardless of origin, time, and place.
• Art has been part of human culture and is a way of expressing feelings, ideas, and knowledge.
• Art plays a role in our cultural and social lives.
• Art is an expression of man's reception of nature through interpretation.
• Art is man-made, while nature exists independently.

Art Involves Experience

• Art is understood by experiencing it.
• Unlike data-driven fields, art requires sensory engagement.
• True understanding and knowledge of art comes from sensing, seeing, and hearing it.
• Art depends on experience.
• Art isn't just facts or information, it's an actual experience.

Art as Expression

• Art expresses thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and desires.
• Art shares a personal experience of the world.
• Art communicates intimate concepts.
• The concepts cannot be faithfully portrayed by words alone.

Art as a Form of Creation

• Art is a range of human activity and resulting product.
• Art involves creative or imaginative talent with technical skill.
• Art has beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
• Drawing boosts creativity and imagination.

Arts and Human Appreciation

• Random strokes or dots can be a work of art.
• Human intellect leads to the appreciation and love of art.
• Art connects humans to experiences.
• Nostalgia compels humans to adore art.

Consciousness and Art Expression

• Art expression is not 100% from the conscious mind.
• Subconscious mind helps with creativity.
• Art can show the artist's deepest self.
• The artist's deepest self is linked to creativity.

Art and Culture

• Art strengthens people's culture and identity.
• Art is a kind of cultural expression.
• Art can teach a great deal about a people or nation.
• Art can act as society's collective memory.
• Artists can preserve and incite through art.
• Art can alter narratives by sparking conversation.

Art and Imagination

• Imagination is a facet of creativity and an aspect of art.
• All kinds of art, literature, and music are a result of component interlock.
• Art is typically influenced by the efforts of others.
• Imagination is the process of putting items, thoughts, feelings, or images together in the mind.

Components of a Work of Art

• Subject - the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the artwork; the "what"
• Content - the meaning that is communicated by the artist or the artwork; the "why"
• Form - the development and configuration of the art work how the elements and the medium or material are put together; the "how"

Representational Art

• Types of art that have subjects that refer to objects or events occurring in the real world.
• Also termed figurative art because the figures depicted are easy to make out and decipher.

Non-Representational Art

• Art forms that do not make a reference to the real world.
• Stripped down to visual elements, such as shapes, lines, and colors.
• Elements are used to translate a particular feeling, emotion, and concept.
• Non-representational art exists on a spectrum with abstract art.
• Requires a higher level of perceptiveness and insight to grasp.

Sources and Kinds of Subject

• Nature
• History
• Still life
• Animals
• Figures
• Greek and Roman mythology
• Judeo-Christian tradition
• Sacred oriental texts
• Other works of art
• Mythology
• Myth
• Dreams
• Fantasies
• Landscape
• Seascape
• Cityscape

Art as an Imitation

• Plato paints artists as imitators in The Republic.
• Plato advises against art in the curriculum and banning artists in the Republic.
• Things in this world are copies of originals only in the World of Forms.
• Plato believed artists reinforce belief in copies and discourage reaching for real entities in the World of Forms.
• Plato was suspicious for emotion over reason and imitation over leading to reality.
• Poetry rouses emotions, clouding rationality.
• Art is just an imitation of reality in the World of Forms.
• Art provides a replacement for the real entities that can only be attained through reason.

Art as a Representation

• Aristotle conceived of art as representing possible versions of reality.
• Art endeavors to provide a version of what might be or myriad possibilities of reality.
• Art serves two purposes: experience of pleasure and ability to be instructive.

Art as a Disinterested Judgment

• Kant considered judgment of beauty as universal.
• Judgement of beauty is subjective.
• Subjective judgments are based on universal criterion.
• Aesthetic judgment requires one to be disinterested.
• Appreciate art from a universal standpoint.

Art as Communication of Emotion

• Tolstoy believed art plays a role in communicating emotions.
• Art unites through feelings and thoughts.
• Art makes feelings and emotions accessible.

Mediums of Art

• The means by which an artist communicates his ideas.
• Materials used by the artist to interpret feelings or thoughts.
• Chalk Pastels.
• Charcoal.
• Colour Pencils.
• Crayons.
• Graphite.
• Ink.
• Markers.
• Oil Pastels.
• Pens.
• Water Colour Pencils.
• Visual arts mediums can be seen and which occupy space -Dimensional or Two-Dimensional Art
• Three- Dimensional Art

Painting

• The art of creating meaningful effects on a flat surface through pigments.
• Mediums for Painting:
  • Water colour
  • Gouache
  • Fresco
  • Tempera
  • Pastel
  • Encaustic
  • Oil
  • Acrylic
  • Mosaic
  • Stained Glass
  • Tapestry
  • Pen
  • Pencil
  • Ink
  • Charcoal
  • Dimensional or Two-Dimensional Art
  • Three- Dimensional Art

Three Dimensional Art

• Artistic compositions that occupy space and have height, width, and depth.
• Hard, brittle, non-crystalline substance produced by fusion including silica, silicates, soda and lime: Glass.
• Brown pigment from the soot of wood: Bistre.
• Pigments bound by wax pressured into painted sticks: Crayons.
• Silver point uses a silver stylus to thin lightly produce a line grayish look: Silverpoint.
• Printmaking is using anything printed on a surface that becomes the direct result of duplication: Printmaking.
• Surface printing done that has been treated chemically or mechanically so that some surface areas print: Lithography.
• Stone: a hard, brittle substance formed from mineral and earth materials.
  • Wood easy to work with can be is subjected to different treatments: Wood-carving

Architecture

• Art of designing a building to supervise its construction.
• Materials: -found in Nature -materials Manufactured by man -Indigenous Materials

Auditory Art.

-Mediums can be heard and expressed over time.

Combined Arts

• Mixed media -Sketch before painting -combining water colour with pastel in landscape painting