TAKE HOME FINAL EXAM, 30% of the final grade

TAKE HOME FINAL EXAM, 30% of the final grade. Physical requirements: about 7 typed, double spaced pages (about 350 words per page). (Unless you do a web site.) Writing is to be more formal than your journal, especially in regard to spelling and grammar. And there is to be more unity than in journal, though the requirement of integrating 7 artists or buildings being somewhat artificial, there may be less unity than a simple essay. For some idea of what I mean by unity check out the internet for keywords "unity, cohesion, organization, flow, transitions,etc." Here are some examples:

What to write about? Follow your heart, intuition, right brain, whatever....Ask yourself what you have been most drawn to in your time here, what interests you the most, what has inspired the most emotion in you. See if that might be a good theme (email me if you like); if not, goes to what else inspired you, etc.

Unless you get my OK for a special topic (email me), it has to be a theme that enables you to compare and contrast 7 artists, or, if you are doing architecture, 7 buildings. The 7 can include artists or buildings who are opposites or seem to disprove your theme if need be.

Documentation: you need to have a quote from each author (with bibliographical information) or discussion of a specific detail from each painting or building. To refer to the latter you might include internet references to pictures you find there of your subject, including pictures on our own site.

For example, what draws me the most here is gargoyles and so I am collecting pictures of them: http://www.la.utexas.edu/users/bump/oxford/gargoyles/

I have also bought a book about Oxford gargoyles and did a lot of research on the internet. I have already found more than 7 buildings with gargoyles and more than 7 categories of gargoyles to write about. My basic theme would be what did they represent to the Victorians?

Another example would be to write about the art you saw in the Ashmolean museum. In addition to the Pre-Raphelites, I checked out their Impressionist collection, of course, which included 2 Van Gogh, and their beautiful medieval paintings, but was most impressed, just walking through the galleries with a painting by the greatest of all English painters, J M W Turner, of High Street in 1809. I bought a book about Turner's many paintings of Oxford and found this particular one on the internet. It can be seen at our site at http://www.la.utexas.edu/users/bump/oxford/Ashmolean/Turner-HighSt.jpg It made such a strong impression on me because last night Sue and I were walking down this street and it still looks almost exactly the same! Now, of course, instead of the Oxford dons and students in their gowns in the middle of the street we have buses and cars but the buildings have changed hardly at all in 200 years. It is like last night we walking down a corridor of time. So if I were you I would seek permission to write about the representations of Oxford by Turner and others even though I might not come up with 7 different artists.