Summary of In-Class Exercise

I learned that art is almost always communicating something and that many paintings have historical or cultural importance.  By observing and interpreting a piece, we are able to break an image down into parts or elements.  When viewing these elements separately, we can more fully understand what is being depicted in a work of art.  Sometimes the smallest details are the most important to realizing the context.  Because of this,  we can be sure that viewing a piece of art at face value will almost always leave us with a poor understanding of what was created and why.  Many pieces of art are full of symbolic meaning and draw upon historical and cultural events.  These elements in a work of art (the one's trying to communicate something) are extremely important, if not the most important elements in art.