Although artistic writing is not point-driven, it may well have a thesis statement. Not only will most artistic writing have a foil but the foil is likely to be far more vivid and dramatic than is the case in most transparent essays. In your own writing, make sure that the foil is as definite and distinctive as possible. The reader is supposed to come to share the author's concern. Since the form of the piece is integral to its and your construction of meaning, determining which metaphor best captures the structure of a particular artistic essay can help you see how you are expected to read it.
Some artistic writing is open-ended, some more didactic.
If a particular lesson is being imparted, ask yourself how well suited the artistic style is to that lesson. If the argument or analysis is somewhat open-ended, ask yourself how the artistic approach informs and shapes your response to the argument or analysis. Artistic writing is cohesive rather than fragmentary. Unlike transgressive writing, which deliberately interrupts and problematizes coherence, artistic writing has a definite shape. Readers should have a sense of how things hang together and why the author has put things in one place rather than another.