<p>My essay focused more on visual art and the study of visual art as opposed to any other category of the fine arts such as performance arts or music.</p>
<p>I finished the essay successfully and filled up all of the given space.
My contentions were:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Practicing art and allowing for the exploration of our creative ability rewards us with a certain joy that cannot be received through any other profession
Example: Wassily Kandinsky, 19th century Russian expressionist painter, was a successful lawyer yet unfulfilled with his career; he abandoned the lucrative practice of law to become an artist where he enjoyed even greater success & was finally happy</p></li>
<li><p>Studying artwork instills a fundamental appreciation of humanity's creative ability & talent
Example: talked about my enrollment in AP Art History last year and how my outlook of the world/people became much more positive, how I became a humanist of sorts, deeply impressed by the masterpieces we studied</p></li>
<li><p>Artwork provides powerful insight into the societal/cultural standards of cultures long deceased that leave few records. By understanding and studying art, we are able to demystify the otherwise arcane beliefs and practices of ancient societies
Example: the Lascaux cave paintings, dating to about 20,000 years old, reveals interests of primitive man: animals, people, hunting, etc.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>At first I felt like the essay was OK- that it'd get at least a 10 hopefully, but I've been mulling over the prompt and I'm becoming concerned that I narrowed down the prompt too much. Will not mentioning music, theatre, etc. pull my score down?</p>