Write a 5-page essay (3-page minimum for the draft) that describes the work of art you chose in Step 1, using proper terminology from the Open Educational Resources (see below). Use your description to highlight the things that are particularly interesting to you, and use your interests to propose a topic for research. Propose specific questions related to that topic that you will try to answer, and identify what sorts of materials (scholarly and artistic) that you will need to answer those questions. On a separate page (not part of the page total), provide a preliminary bibliography of scholarly sources that you think you might use.
THE ESSAY
Describe your visual experience in detail, using clear and accurate words. Consider the materials, the forms, the composition, and the artist’s style(see the online resources below).Imagine yourself describing the work of art to someone who cannot see it: your description should translate what you see into words sot hat your reader can visualize your work of art.But your description should not be entirely objective: highlight the things that are particularly interesting to you: things that really attract you, things that relate to your other experiences (see the bullets on Step 1),things that make you think and wonder(see the “See-Think-Wonder” worksheet on Canvas). From your description and the aspects you highlight, propose a direction for inquiry: a topic that you plan to research, plus a series of questions related to that topic that you would like to answer. Discuss what kinds of scholarly sources you might need to use to answer those questions (e.g. scholarly sources that discuss landscape, or a history of religion from the period, or an anthology of poetry), plus what kinds of visual sources you think will need to understand your work better(e.g.other paintings that show windmills, or other images of Adam and Eve).