WP-3 Rough Draft (Letter to Archie)

Dear "Arch Falls",

Since your conception (circa 1980-81) you've been sort of mystery to myself and others.  Over the past few weeks, you made all the long class days just fly by.  Meditating over you was a blessing that I had never seen coming.  William Shakespeare once stated that "Love sought is good, given unsought, is better."  Coming into this Honors English class I never thought I'd fall in love, but "Arch", sometimes love is best when it's unexpected.


I've become infatuated with your every characteristic "Falls", nearly to the point of obsession.  I realize that Bryan Hunt crafted you himself with his bare hands, but all the time and love that he poured into you will pale in comparison with what I'm prepared to give you.  Still, Hunt's attention to detail is remarkable to me.  There are aspects of you that are very clear and explicit and then there's parts that seem to have so many different perspectives.  I love you "Arch Fall" because you speak to the care-free attitude of Mother Nature as a representational form of a cascading waterfall.


For a long time, I couldn't figure out what you were all about "Falls".  The key to unraveling this mystery was arriving at the conclusion that your beauty lies in the fact that you stand alone, away from the cliff face and river that surely created you, and offer unabashedly offer yourself for the public to see at all angles.  That kind of independence is attractive these days.  


You break away from the mold of all the waterfalls that can be found in nature.  Nowhere else in nature can a waterfall be found without a stream or river providing a source or a cliff behind the falls.  There's also something ironic about your construction.  A waterfall in nature is created by water rushing over a cliff face and ends with the crashing of the water on the rocks below.  You, "Arch Falls", were molded out of plaster and formed by hand, but most importantly you were created from the ground up in order to support the structure throughout the process.  You defy the traditional definition of a water fall in every sense, yet that's the category in which you fall under.  The gap and slit you have, would normally have been formed by a rock or perhaps a branch breaching the water's plane, but yet you are left with these scars with the absence of such obstructions.  Don't be ashamed of such scars, we all have some sort of past and histories as no one is perfect.  The gaps in your cascading falls offer an atheistic value that give you an intriguing appearance and a reflective tone.


There's a simple beauty in someone that's confident.  "Arch Falls", you are left out open in the elements.  You stand bold and tall, allowing anyone curious enough to approach you the rare opportunity to examine a waterfall from angles that would never normally be possible.  You're extraordinary "Arch Falls".  There's an air of surrealism to your photographic values. Waterfalls in nature are constantly flowing, yet once again you contradict your roots by standing still.  For a long time this left me a tad suspicious of you, how was it that a statue frozen in time and made of cast bronze could represent an object in nature made of cascading water?  It's in large part by the texture and ridges present all over your surface.  The handmade curvatures give the impression that the water is just that, water.  The lines are organic and flowing where as the structure of the rocks was rigid and sharp.


It was the Grammy-award winner Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes of the all-female R&B group TLC that described the kind of constant, ever rushing love and passion I feel towards you in the band's song "Waterfalls".  The lyrics, "Don't go chasing waterfalls / Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to", speak towards not chasing our dreams that are simply unattainable and focusing on what's most important to us in our lives.  Well to me that's you "Arch Falls".


"Arch Falls", you and I are perfect for each other.  You may not realize it yet but the fact of the matter is that I complete you.  I'm ready to fill the voids that Hunt left you with rendering you mysterious and largely misunderstood.  I love you "Arch Falls" and I know it may not be able to work out this summer, I mean let's be real here you're bolted to the ground and Sheldon would never let me take you to the south-side of town, but I'll be back in the fall and our love for each other will be that much stronger with time spent apart.


Your Fondest Admirer,
Blake

WP-3 Statement of Purpose

People often times limit themselves as to what they choose to analyze critically.  The idea of rhetoric is that everything in society can be placed under a microscope and that everything makes an argument.  Previously, we've looked at the various elements at play in photographs and comic strips, but sadly there was never any mention of art objects.  In this, my last blogpost Statement of purpose, I will rhetorically consider my sculpture, Bryan Hunt's "Arch Falls", with deliberate attention paid to my audience and the mode of which I will be presenting this to the audience.


The interesting factor about this project is that rather than my grade being based off a blogpost online for possibly my classmates to see but with reasonably only my teacher as my primary audience, now I will be presenting a letter written to my statue in front of the whole English 151H class and my professor, Josh.  When taking this into account, it is obvious that my classmates and professor are all well versed in the terms and concepts of rhetorical analysis this late in the semester and that all parties are aware of the assignment at hand.  The fact that they themselves will have been and/or are completing the exact same assignment as myself makes their perception as audience members that much more critical because they themselves will have meditated and reflected on their works as I have.  It is for this reason that my reading and imitation will require a creative presentation that illustrates a deep, reflective understanding of my sculpture.  In addition, the drafts of my letter will be typed and placed within this blog bringing about another set of audience members.  The secondary audience for the letter will include both UNL students that take this class in the future and look back on my blogposts as examples and the rest of the internet crowd that may come across my post through a random search engine compilation.  This secondary audience requires that I explicitly state the effects of the various rhetorical devices, thus nullifying the basis of knowledge of my primary audience.  For this reason, the letter must be explicit and concise in both it's presentation and analysis of the sculpture.


With that in mind, the analysis of "Arch Falls" must effectively describe as many of the rhetorical elements as the piece presents.  Obviously, our understanding of art is every growing with time and each piece has countless aspects and values that can be addressed.  Factors that attribute to the piece's argument may not have even been the original intent of the sculptor himself but anyone of my audience members may view the statue in another light.  For this reason, it's important to present all of the perspectives and concepts that I can come up with in hopes of addressing all the different view points.  An important thing to consider when hoping to appeal to such a broad outlook, is that the ideas must be concise or else I will risk hurting the credibility and ethos of my presentation.


In this modern age, art surrounds us in society and has become a major method of communication within our culture.  A perfect example of this is "Arch Falls" (Bryan Hunt).  After hearing my presentation of my analysis the audience will hopefully walk away with a deeper understanding of both what arguments are portrayed in this work, but also how art works rhetorically towards us all.