## What is art? **Art**: the expression or application of human creative skill. art must: - be made with the intent to convey emotion - should "satisfy the senses" - be made with intent - have attention to feeling and emotion art may: - be a relay of experience or emotion from one person to another ## Medium A particular material, along with an accompanying technique (plural: media). Example include: - Acrylic, enamel, gesso, glaze, ink, oil ## History 1. The branch of knowledge dealing with past events ## How do you look at art? Purposes and functions of art include: - Communicating information: - In non-literate societies, art was used to teach. - Today, film and television are used to disseminate information. - Spirituality and Religion - All of the world's major religions have used art to inspire and instruct the faithful - Personal and cultural expression - Social and political ends - Artists have criticized or influenced values or public opinion - Often it is clear and direct - Other times, however, it is less obvious - Monarchs who commissioned projects to symbolize their strength and power Generally, art can be broken down into two parts, *form*, and *content*. - Form relates to the "formal" aspects of art, composition or medium. - Content relates to the subject. What's being portrayed, how are they portraying it? - The distinction should be made between fact and opinion/guessing. Parts of form: 1. Line and Shape - Lines define space and may create an outline or contour, as style called "linear" - They can be *visible* or *implied*, and may be a part of composition - It may be 2 dimensional, 3 dimensional, suggested, or implied. - *Wherever there is an edge 2. Color - Hue: The name of the color (red, blue, yellow) - Saturation: The quality or vibrancy of those values - Brightness | Phrase | Definition | | ---- | ---- | | | |