In Barrett’s ‘Why is That Art?’, his primary goal is to explain art, and to show how it is defined. Barrett goes into detail on how a critic evaluates art and how the critic defines the art by different categories and themes. In my opinion, art is art when the creator calls it art. If someone worked hard on something, or even hardly worked at all it is there choice to call their work art or not. Since I am not adept at being a critic, I haven’t truly utilized the steps and examples Barrett wrote about.

1.M.3 Art Definitions

This reading shows us the different forms of composition and how they can work together. I found this reading to be very understandable, especially since we get to see the “same” image repeated in these different compositions and how they relate to the “subject” or lack-there-of. Since I am a visual person, I often use different references or images to help me form my artwork. However, some of the most enjoying art I have created have been straight from my imagination and therefore more abstract. I enjoy representational work the most but am interested in exploring other compositions.

1.M.2 Visual Expression

After reading the chapters from the parallel universes wiki, I noted that the point of these readings were to show us what visual grammar is, and how it relates to us as artists. Personally, I felt as though I understood the majority of the readings, I already understood what things such as point, lines, volume, light, ect. meant in terms of art usage. However, there were things I had little knowledge about such as kinematics, and would be interesting in going over that topic more in class.

The way I understand grammar is visually. I am a very visual person and always struggled with the typical verbal grammar. That being said I do understand how visual grammar and verbal grammar need one another in certain ways. Being able to see and hear something helps people grasp concepts faster considering they are using multiple senses to learn and understand at once. However, Being able to just see something or just hear something can cause just as much of an impact as being able to see and hear.

1.M.1 Visual Grammar