Nervous Appreciation

In less than twenty-four hours, I will re-start that adventure known as "college". It is less scary because it is online rather than in person, but I am apprehensive just the same.

The first class is Art Appreciation. I have never had any "appreciation" class. I was in Art History when I got sick enough to have to withdraw last year and it was interesting and challenging. I love history. I have no clue what to expect from an "appreciation" class.

If it involves me having to guess at what the artist meant when they chose this color or that line or that tree...how am I supposed to know that? If it involves me telling why I like or don't like the art, well, maybe I can do that, but maybe I don't know how to tell them using the terminology that they're expecting me to use.

Answering the question of "does it work" isn't something that I can answer because what works for me might not be working for someone else. Everyone has different tastes in artwork. Even my own tastes have changed over the last few years. I used to totally detest abstract art and didn't think it made any sense at all. OK, so I still feel that way about some of it, but I am able to look at much of it with a different sense of vision now than I was using two years ago. So what if it isn't a clearly defined object. It doesn't have to be in order to be beautiful.

I just hope that by the end of this class I will be able to appreciate it more fully and not be ready to gag at the mention of the word "art". Because right now, I'm nervous enough to do just that.