From the moment I stepped into the classroom, I thought that Art1010 would just be about simple old paintings. However, during the first week or so, we started to talk about what art really means to us. Art can mean a handful of things to us and is completely subjective to the human eye. Each individual interprets and comprehends things differently. Even though art is subjective, some of the components are incorporated into each masterpiece. Some of these components are uniqueness, imagination, expressiveness, affluential, and complex. These all create the foundation for beautiful artwork. With every piece of art, that artist always includes something that makes it their own. Where no one can make the piece like them.
Other concepts in which I have learned are the Banking Model of Paulo Freire and the use of formal analysis. The banking model is a concept of education where the students only know how to retrieve, file, and store away certain information given to them. Students only know how to memorize the information given to them, but don’t actually take the time to understand the material that is distributed. In the article, when Freire says “banking,” he means to take and put away, just like you would do at a bank with your own money. This concept is still practiced in modern day education and is believed to be the worst way to teach. When teaching something, everyone’s voice should be heard on the topic being discussed. Also, the teachers should make sure that the students actually understand what’s being taught and not just memorizing the material for the sake of it.
The other concept that I have learned in Unit 1 is the use of formal analysis. I believe that this is the most important component of any artwork because by using formal analysis, we can pick apart the artwork piece by piece and truly understand its origin. Formal analysis is the meaning and evaluation of art. It focuses on the central idea and how the story is being told. For example, when looking at a piece of art, to use formal analysis you would look at the contrast of light, the scale of the painting, the color, line, depth, and historical context. By picking the artwork apart, it is much easier to get an understanding of what the artist was thinking about at the time of creation. It’s an inside look of his/her intentions. Historical context is one of the most important components of formal analysis. In my opinion, without historical context, we would be perplexed by what the artist is trying to portray. Artwork created now has a completely different agenda than what art back then portrayed. A portrait in the 1800’s would look substantially different than a portrait in 2018. It’s a must to know what’s going on at the time the art was created to truly understand its production process.
From Unit 1, I have gained a greater understanding of the foundations of artwork, what art can mean to different people, and why the education system should be changed. These are some things that I thought I would never know until I entered the classroom. From the understanding of formal analysis, I look at art much differently and in a more superficial way. Now that I know all the key factors that go into creating these masterpieces, I feel more cultured and like I have an upper hand on the rest of the world. 
