Response to Walker and Barrett articles

      One thing that I liked about the Walker article was the examples. The author provides many examples of artwork and artists to get their point across. This really helped me understand so of the ideas better rather than just saying them with out examples. I believe it is important to have examples because they help the reader understand and if the reader doesn't understand then they won't be interested in the article any more. Another thing I liked was the subject matter or big idea section. I liked this because it showed you that you can incorporate a lot of different things into your artwork but yet still maintain your big idea.
     One thing I did not like about the Walker article was the theme vs big idea part. I was not fully able to understand how the theme and big idea are not always the same thing. To me it seems like they should be the same thing because a theme is a big idea of a piece of work. I always viewed the theme to be a major part of something; you always try and find the theme of a book or project which is mainly what your work is about. I did like how he used examples however I feel that that part could have been explained a little more.
       The part of the Barrett article that stuck out most to me was the interpreting part. I thought that it was cool how the different ages can pick out the connotations and denotations of certain things. Normally you don't think of preschoolers able to do this but when given something as simple as a teddy bear they can. I also thought it was cool the level of ability the kindergartners had in separating the cereal boxes. I know its not a hard thing to do but it is cool to see that they understand at such a young age how the look of something targets a different audience.
      Something that I didn't really like in the Barrett article was that he didn't define connotations and denotations very clearly in the beginning. I feel that he should have provided a better understanding of what they are before just jumping in and talking about them. I believe that it turns readers away if they don't have any clue what the author is writing about unless it says in the beginning. The idea of connotations and denotations itself is great but how is someone supposed to understand an article if they don't know what it is even talking about.