In the final writing project, I was faced with a challenge of either choosing to write a rhetorical analysis of my sculpture or a letter addressed to my sculpture. Of course I picked the letter to switch up my writing style. This writing assignment was the same as the other but tweaked a little bit. These differences between the first two writing projects and the last one were that we didn’t get to choose what we wrote about and we were working with sculptures instead of pictures or comic strips. The part about the art sculpture made me uneasy and a little stressed out. This is because I have never personally worked with art objects and didn’t even know any general information about art, so this put me at a stump. When I was told what art object I was going to be doing, Fallen Dreamer, I “googled” it to find something about it. To my surprise I found a great variety of thing, from the author to the sculpture itself. But this still didn’t help me find enough information about it to make a clear argument.
In the end I decided to write the letter to Fallen Dreamer. There were two reasons why I switched it up from the previous writing assignment. One, because I am horrible at writing rhetorical analysis, it is obvious from my previous writing assignments. Two, I felt the letter would be easier and I might get a better grade.
What made me have the confidence in my decision to right the letter instead of the rhetorical analysis was my one-on-one conference, where we talked about my sculpture. During this session I gained many more new and different perspectives for the development of my letter. I decided to focus on a very descriptive observation about my sculpture and through these observations filter both my observations and reflections through a specific conceptual paradigm, intensification.
By most accounts, my first draft was incomplete. Although I felt that I had developed a strong introduction by developing in my letter what I was going to be talking about and presented a little bit of cultural context, I was unsure how to apply the intensification and conclusion of my letter and still make it sound conversational. I wasn’t too worried about my conclusion in my first draft because I knew I was going to have two peer reviews, a second rough draft, and a final draft to complete my letter. But to my surprise we had a snow day and so we didn’t have class on the Tuesday of our first peer reviews. This started to worry me I knew I had a pretty concrete first draft but that conclusion and some parts in the body I wanted feedback on.
All in all I got my final draft done and thought it was pretty decent. I changed my conclusion to summarize what I talked about and ending with thanking my sculpture and cherishing him for his time that I spent with him. In the introduction I added what I was going to be talking about in the letter and in the body it mostly stayed how it was but I rearranged some of the information. I think from the three writing projects it helped me on my grammar, sentence structure, and ideas of how to write rhetorical analysis. I think this class will definitely help me in the rest of my three years of college.
Rough Draft
Statement of Purpose
Dear Fallen Dreamer:
I have been analyzing you for the past several weeks for my English class’s final writing project of the semester. You have given me a new meaning to art, not just sculptures but to anything you can evaluate. When I was first told I was going to be observing you I “googled” your name, and to my surprise something out of the ordinary came up. There was a power point show that the Sheldon Art Museum must have showed to a tour they had. It told me the basic information I needed to know. There was information about your artist, what you looked like, and some basic questions that I asked myself about you as an art object. These helped me get started with analyzing what I thought you were. We met in person sometime in late November, on a beautiful sunny afternoon. After several afternoons of observing you I want to articulate what I’ve been noticing. I also would like to discuss the argument I think you’ve been making. To end with I want to discuss your use of intensification.
From first impressions I thought you were just a head tilted at an awkward angle, but through many observations I became aware of more than just your head. I also noticed you looked like a sad and lonely head. I got the implications that you were sad from your narrow raised eyes brows, lined eyes, and slightly frowned under mouth. Another factor is the way you are facing and on the side of your face gave me the impression that you had maybe fallen or were dreaming of something harsh. The ridged indentions on the back of your head also intrigued me. When I first saw them I thought that maybe they were scratches or maybe you were whipped. These implications also lead me to the smooth leveled bottom of your neck. It seems to me that someone just sliced you at the head leaving just the head to be looked at. All of these inferences lead me to think that you had a sad life and therefore are a Fallen Dreamer.
Before this writing project I didn’t have much experience with art objects so every time I analyzed you I kept coming back to the question “What is art?” By the end of last week I developed an answer to that question. Art is produced using skill, which is “acquired by experience, study, or observations” in a creative fashion for the purpose of creating an aesthetically pleasing outcome (Merriam-Webster). It required some artistic skill to create you the way you are. The composition of the shapes, lines, and color of your appearance required some artistic skill, as did working with the bronze to construct you as a product. Your artist in particular, Tom Otterness, has been working with art sculptures for well over fifteen years, so some may say he’s an expert. He has played an important role in reintroducing narrative and figurative sculptures as a vital art form (Sheldon Sculpture Brochure). This statement makes me think that you are indeed more than just a head, but a head that tells a story.
You were aspired from the giant Olmec heads that were created by ancient Central American cultures well over 3,000 years ago. Many of these heads were fashioned in the round, portraying the human figure in squat but accurate details (ageless classical reproductions). You have very similar details to the Olmec heads created; a significant difference is the placement of your head and how you are made out of bronze and original Olmec heads are made out of solid casting stones.
In some of our pre-writing assignments we were asked to reconsider our art objects in question as an “intensification” of what we originally perceived it to be. Instead of seeing you only for your aesthetic value—a bronze head with significant detailed facial features and tilted on the side of your head—we viewed you through an exaggerated lens. With that said you could represent a number of things. The term Fallen could be described as “those people killed in war or battle, especially while fighting” and the term dreamer can be defined obviously as somebody who is absorbed by fantasies or unrealistic plans (word-dictionary). So, you as a piece of art could have been someone who was in war and fallen because you were daydreaming.
I also viewed you as an intensification of the natural environment in which you are located. You are placed directly in front of the Sheldon Art Museum and placed in the middle of the cement steps. From a distant look of your surroundings it is almost like you had fallen down in front of a castle. I get this idea because of the material the Sheldon Art Museum is made out of and the way the front of the building has huge-like pillars. When people walk by the museum it is almost like you are welcoming them to it. Since you are directly in front of it, it makes the people literally walk around you, but also look at you. I walked by the Sheldon yesterday when it was snowing indefinitely. I was thinking that I could feel your pain just walking through the snow. And yet when our class was analyzing our sculptures a couple weeks ago when it was extremely nice out I thought it wasn’t right for you to have such a sunken look on your face. So, really the environment reflects many perspectives of art. It can change the way you look or think about things.
Why is it that a simply object can be expressed in multiply ways? And why is it that our mind perceives things in such a way that they are totally different from what other people think? These are things that I wanted to get off my chest, and express to you. You have been an extremely superior listener. I would like to say thank you for making my experience for my final writing project intriguing and out of the ordinary, but it also helped me understand art from many different perspectives. Analyzing you has also made me use my imagination to its full potential. Our time together has made many memories, and I appreciate that you were the one to cherish them with me.
Sincerely Yours,
Kelsey Vesely
Student, Observer, Friend
Work Cited
"Art." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. Accessed 7 Nov. 2009 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/art.
Olmec. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
Olmec Colossal Head. Ageless Classical Reproductions. Web. 7 Nov. 2009. .
Sculpture Brochure. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. http://www.sheldonartgallery.org/photos/graphics/sculpturebrochure.pdf.
Tom Otterness. Artnet. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
Tom Otterness. New York Times, 22 Sept. 2006. Web. 7 Nov. 2009. .
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