"For the first time I know what love is; what friends are; and what art should be. Love is a seeking for a way of life; the way that cannot be followed alone; the resonance of all spiritual and physical things. Friendship is another form of love, more passive perhaps, but full of the transmitting and acceptances of things like thunderclouds and grass and the clean granite of reality. Art is both love and friendship and understanding: the desire to give. It is not charity, which is the giving of things. It is more than kindness, which is the giving of self. It is both the taking and giving of beauty, the turning out to the light of the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. It is a recreation on another plane of the realities of the world; the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men, and of all the interrelations of these." - Ansel Adams, Love, Art, Life, Spirit, Light, Beauty, World

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance." - Aristotle

Part 1 - (2) paragraphs -Please include any references and intext-citations

• How did you gain an awareness and understanding of art and art forms?
• Did you have self-awareness as experienced by the quote above by Ansel Adams?
• Was there a teacher that impressed on you key art concepts?
• Did you visit a museum as a field trip?
• Did your parents interest you in art? How influential has popular culture been in informing you about art?

Part 2 (2) paragraphs - Please include any references and intext-citations

• Who should define what should be considered art?
• What are your impressions of what constitutes art?
• Do you agree or disagree with the quote by Aristotle about the "aim of art"?
• Discuss with 2 or more classmates how your ideas differ from their ideas about art.
• Discuss how your ideas differ from art critics.