Reflections of AED 200

My expectations for this course were very simple; I figured we would be learning about different artists and their work. This class was much more than that. We learned about art in different time periods and also how the art was developed, which was interesting to me. Making the blog was not at all something that I had expected we would be doing, in addition to all the art gallery visits we had to do. As someone who has taken many online classes, I had never had to do work that involved me physically having to go somewhere. I definitely think having to physically go to art galleries helped open my mind more and helped me understand the different elements of art as well.

My definition of art remains the same as it did in the beginning of the course, which is that art is something created by an individual to express or depict a certain emotion, feeling, or event. I would like to add though that I think art is also a form of creative expression. Sometimes an individual does not need to be feeling a certain way in order to make a beautiful piece of art. Sometimes it can be something that was created simply by the current thoughts of an individual, with no specific purpose behind it.

I am embarrassed that in my initial discussion post I stated that I couldn't think of any artists off the top of my head. I don't even know how that was possible! Anyway, I think that Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso have got to be my favorite artists, in addition to Michelangelo. Van Gogh paints awe-inspiring paintings of the night sky where I feel like I could stare at his pieces for hours. Picasso paints many pieces where he distorts peoples faces, making them looking ugly in a way, yet something about me loves this. I cannot pinpoint why this is, I think part of it is because that is kind of like his own personal style when painting images of peoples faces. As for Michelangelo, I think he is a complete genius and that the sculptures he has created cannot be matched. They are life-like, yet always show more than exactly what meets the eye.

After completing this course, I still enjoy online classes. I think I do relatively well in them. Some online classes are a bore and I feel as though I am wasting my time, which is my current feelings on one of the other online classes I took this semester. The only constructive criticism I have for this class is that for the weekly video blog reviews, although the videos were always different, the four questions were always the same. By the end of the semester, this made the video reviews become kind of boring to me since I felt like I was always talking about the same type of things because I was always answering the same questions. Other than that, I really enjoyed this class and liked how you don't have to have an art background in order to excel in the class.