Unit 7: Our World – Nature, the Body, Identity, Sexuality, Politics, and Power

In this unit, we explore how artists express and interpret our world. If nothing else, visual art provides an avenue for self-expression. As a primary source of inspiration, artists express attitudes, feelings, and sentiments about their environment through personal experiences, social interaction, and relationships with the natural world. In short, art helps us perceive and react to our place in the world. In Unit 1, we referred to description as one of many roles art adopts, but description is often imbued with the artist's subjective take on the world. In this unit, we examine how art operates as a vehicle for human expression – a kind of collective visual metaphor that helps us define who we are.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.