analyzing visual arts discusssion

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS:   Your contributions should be thoughtful and developed.  Answer all parts of the question and use concepts from the course materials.  Use a professional style of communication, with attention to grammar, spelling, and typos; cite your sources.  

Unless your instructor specifies otherwise, choose ONE of the following questions, and give a substantive response to at least two other students.  

OPTION 1:  DESCRIBE AND DISCUSS A FAVORITE WORK   

1. Describe a favorite work of visual art and include a picture of it in your post. Your selection may come from the entire range of visual arts, anything from a famous painting in a museum to an iconic architectural masterpiece to a handmade basket or an especially well-designed object.  The only restriction is that you need to have seen the actual work of art, rather than a photo or online image.  
2. Describe the medium it represents within the scope of visual arts.  Tell us about its maker or designer.  What year is it from?  Where is it located? What was its intended function?  What is its significance to you?  
3. Does this particular piece help you understand something about reality or is it intended to be more of an illusion pointing to something we don't really quite understand, like a shadow on the wall of the cave as in the Allegory of the Cave we looked at last week?
4. Use at least two of the vocabulary, concepts or techniques you or any of your classmates posted in Discussion 2.1. to say something more about this piece of art. Underline or bold the vocabulary, concept or technique you use as a interpretative tool in your post. 

OPTION 2: SCAVENGER HUNT  

1. Choose a theory of visual art described in this week’s Learning Resource titled “A historical overview of ideas guiding the visual arts in the Western world: from Plato to the present day.
2. Then find a related work of visual art represented within the Learning Resource link to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, or any of the Learning Resources included within the “Range of Visual Arts.”
3. Include a picture of the work in your post, and Discuss your interest in both and the relation you see between them.  That connection may relate to visual qualities, history, use, or meaning.
4. Finally, point out how your response uses at least two of the vocabulary, concepts or techniques you or any of your classmates posted in Discussion 2.1. Underline or bold the vocabulary, concept or technique you use as a interpretative tool in your post.