Hello, I'm in grade 12 and I've never been any good at writing essays.
I've been offered an honours program at an arts university but they say that they need a good enough essay to confirm. I don't think it needs to be formal... but i'm not sure.
please help!
Honours Program Essay: Why Art?
Did you ever feel yourself so immersed into sketching a doodle in the corner of a paper that you couldn't even hear people around you? Have you ever looked at a picture, it doesn't even have to be professional, and smiled because you really liked it? Well then, I believe that you are taking part as an artist. These days everything can be considered art in my opinion. If the piece has been drawn, sketched, painted, or placed on the ground with consideration, I believe it's art. No, I am not mocking the post-modernism art. I'm not saying that everything and anything can be art. I see the beauty in Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain' and call it art despite the objection of many people. So at these times when so many things can be considered art as long as you put care, thought, and meaning to the piece, why NOT art?
In the eyes of those who don't appreciate art, paintings of the minimalist movement such as Kazimir Malevich's 'White on White', or the paintings of the abstract expressionist movement such as William De Kooning's 'Woman', seems like childish works that anyone can create in a moment. However, they never pondered upon the many hours that the artists considered the composition, the colors, and the meaning. One of the characteristics of true art, I believe is that there is a meaning behind it. I don't care if the meaning is 'Learn to love', or 'Paintings are dead', if there is a meaning behind it, it's art. Does the little doodle in the corner of your note have even a little meaning behind it? Then it's art. So why NOT art?
Installation and minimalist art are some of the main examples of art many people think that they've been placed without thought. That they're simply random objects placed to look 'artsy'(a word thrown around a lot these days, but I haven't the faintest idea of what it really is), but to people who really appreciate art would know the care and love that the artists put into the each stroke, each object. For example, Tracey Emen's 'My Bed', holds so much thought and consideration put into each and every object. Although to many, it seems extremely mundane. Have the way you placed your mug cups in the cabinet been placed with care? Then it's art. So Why NOT art?
So you may ask: Who are you to say what art is and what it isn't? For one, I consider myself as an artist. I love art, and therefore I think I can define what I love. Also, by writing what I think is art, I'm not setting a restriction to what art can be for everyone. This is just what I believe is art.
In my opinion, there are abundant ways for your life to be enriched with art. I believe that everyone's life can be so much better with art. Not only is it a source to express your emotions and opinion, it can be taken lightly to amuse yourself. So I ask once again. Why NOT art?
Also, there is another one that is allowed to be informal, but I still need alittle feedback. only if you have the time. this one doesnt HAVE to be read
It was all around me. Even if I tried to escape its grip, I wouldn't succeed. Art was everywhere. Art is the one thing that I chose to follow. No back up careers, no insurance. Many things have influenced me to pursue art. I've let my emotions carry me through art, as well as people around me. Why do I wish to pursue undergraduate study in the arts? Well, I'm simply captured in its beauty.
In my eyes, even at a young age, everything seemed like a piece of art. The reflection of the computer screen to a stapler, the worn out maroon bricks jaggedly placed below my feet, the colours of my room wall slightly water stained in burnt umber shades, everything I saw, touched, stepped, was a part of why I want to study and embrace art.
I currently am in a program called 'Arts York', or 'Arts Unionville' at my school. When I first decided to audition for it, I did it half heartedly. My portfolio was poor, so I was in the waiting list. Not yet failed, but not yet successful. I was accepted but I didn't know why. What made me stand out from the crowd of others on the waiting list? Maybe they saw through my drawings that I actually really loved art and had it in my bones. In the beginning, I absolutely hated it. I always said to my friends that I'm definitely dropping out of the program. I thought it had me in a cage. Now I love it. I take in all the petty sketches, thumbnails, and essays with an open mind because I know that I've got to learn to crawl before I run. I'm still given freedom at school. Every painting is used to express my feelings. I feel the blood in my veins run when I hold up a paint brush. I still feel excitement indescribable when I see a blank canvas. Every time I build a canvas, I see images speeding through my mind, and dream about the moment I can start painting. I'm so captivated by art that all the foundation work feels like joy. Every life drawing session, every gesture, every study seems to go by so quickly when I start to imagine just how much everything I do now will help me develop.
Sometimes art made me feel like a wet cotton ball. Sometimes it drew me to the darkest places of redemption, panic, and even hate. Sometimes art made me like a single leaf. Drawing me to the highest points of the sky, art made me feel happiness through every stroke of a brush. No matter what I felt about art, I kept drawing. My emotions drove me to a large range of subject matter, colour palettes, and textures.
Sometimes I produce things beautiful, sometimes rather unpleasant. Whatever the result, I'm addicted. I want to study it to make 'my art' more beautiful by learning even more. I'm simply captured for life.
as you can tell, essays really arent my thing... so please give lots of feedback :)
thank you so much!
Interesting response in you're first paragraph. you use second person to address the reader, but this makes it a unique, tho informal essay.
One of the characteristics of true art, I believe is that there is a meaning behind it.
comma missing or something here
Does the little doodle in the corner of your note have even a little meaning behind it? Then it's art. So why NOT art?
the question goes unanswered. what do you mean, so why not art? though you continue this throughout the essay, I think it seemed stronger in the first paragraph. here, the repetition seems out of place (to me).
Installation and minimalist art are some of the main examples of art many people think that they've been placed without thought.
a mouthful~edit?
That they're simply random objects placed to look 'artsy'(a word thrown around a lot these days, but I haven't the faintest idea of what it really is), but to people who really appreciate art would know the care and love that the artists put into the each stroke, each object.
run on? or continuation of previous sentence?
Although to many, it seems extremely mundane.
yet to many*
Have the way you placed your mug cups in the cabinet been placed with care? Then it's art. So Why NOT art?
again, I'm quite confused. If I haven't placed them with care, then is it still art? This mug cups business sounds somewhat harsh and untransitioned. did that artist's picture have a mug cup?
Also, by writing what I think is art, I'm not setting a restriction to what art can be for everyone. This is just what I believe is art.
Are you saying that by writing down your idea of art, you are not limiting that to other people? the "art is in the eye of the viewer? and what do you mean by "this"?
You ask again, Why not art?, several times, I don't think you need to repeat that many times.
Basic idea I get from this essay is that you see art as a method to immerse yourself in, as anything with a purpose (explicit, or implicit) behind it, and that there are thoughts behind the artist's painting/artwork.
This is a run on sentence, but it is okay because of poetic license:
Have you ever looked at a picture, it doesn't even have to be professional, and smiled because you really liked it?
However, you can do this:
Have you ever looked at a picture (it doesn't even have to be professional), and smiled because you really liked it?
or:
Have you ever looked at a photograph, not necessarily one taken by a professional, and smiled because you really liked it?
How about a colon at the end:
So I ask once again: Why NOT art?
:-)
