The questions are invitations to biographical and reflective sharing, despite their occasional form (which could be answered with a yes or no). Please give some thoughtful description in response to each question.
How did your interest in the arts (all of the arts) develop from childhood and more recently? What studies have you undertaken? What persons have influenced you?
In what activities in the arts—aesthetic practices (APs) have you participated? Include going to concerts, museums, reading poems, creative work, study, and any other aesthetic practices you can identify.
For each AP that you identify, say what it takes to do it excellently, very well, beautifully. In doing so, identify the excellences or virtues or skills relevant to the AP.
What have you done to cultivate these excellences? Have you noticed growth that has come without deliberate cultivation?
How do your growing aesthetic excellences apply in other areas of life?
Do you recall coming to a significant insight during an AP? If you can remember the insight, how would you put it into words? Are there ideas or theories about the arts that matter to you?
Has a work of art ever inspired you or uplifted your sense of humanity, beauty, God, the universe, nature, or any other cosmic concept? Please describe an example.
How do your APs relate to science, philosophy, spiritual experience, beauties of nature, morality, and love?
How has your character been affected by your involvement in APs?
Please begin to write your answers day by day, and keep a journal during the semester. Consider creating journal entries as paragraphs that could enter into an essay, not just as brief skeletons of meaning. In this way, I can ask for a draft of this part of your project in a few weeks, and you will easily be able to collect several pages of response.
Version 2.0, August 27, 2007