Go to an art museum or gallery - a place where art has been very deliberately selected and considerable attention has been given to exhibition choices. The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture is a good choice, but costs $5 with student ID. The Jundt Art Mueum at Gonzaga is always free. There are suitable galleries in downtown Spokane and Coeur d'Alene, as well. See me if you're confused about where to go.

Select a work to which you feel some strong response. Spend several minutes carefully studying the work. Write down your thoughts as you are standing in front of it, after you have spent some time really studying it. Perhaps you would like to make a quick sketch of your selected piece. Your assignment is to respond to the work by answering the following questions. By carefully considering subject matter, medium, form, and context, you should be able to arrive at a thoughtful well-defended interpretation of the piece.

***Please replace questions with your responses to them next to their corresponding letter or number.

(1) Describe it. Be as descriptive as possible. I should be able to visualize your piece through your detailed description.
(A) If it is representational, what is the subject matter depicted? If it is non-representational, say so. What does it look like?
(B) What is the medium? Have we studied/do you know anything about the process that resulted in the work?
(C) What size is it? (approximate is ok) Does this size affect your interaction with the piece?
(D) Is it a 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional piece?
(E) Which formal elements stand out to you? (Consider our 2nd and 3rd lectures)
(F) What are the colors being used?
(G) Include any other important descriptive details.

(2) Contextualize it.
(A) What is the title?
(B) What is the name of the artist who created it? Do you know anything about the artist?
(C) Is there a statement giving you more information to help inform the work?
(D) In which year was it made?
(E) Where is it being displayed?
(F) How is it being displayed?
(G) Are there other works by the same artist or others around to give you more context?
(H) Can you compare and contrast it to other works you've seen elsewhere or studied?

(3) Interpret it.
Based on your description, what do you think the artist was trying to say? Look back to your descriptive process to help inform this interpretation.

(4) Respond to it.
Respond to the work by answering some or all of the following questions in one cohesive paragraph. I am not interested in merely hearing whether or not you like the piece, but also want you to meaningfully consider your relationship to the work. If you do not like the work, ask yourself, "If I were someone who did like this piece, why would I like it?" Who is its intended audience and are you among that audience? Why did you choose this particular piece? What does it make you think about? Why do you think that the artist made the choices that she or he did? Do you agree with all of those choices? Is the artist's intention clear/well-executed? How do you feel about the way in which the work is being displayed? Would it be more suitably exhibited somewhere else or alongside different work? This part of the paper may contain judgments, but at this point they will be well founded. Never make a proclamation without continuing the sentence with because...