Reading Art
I chose to read a piece of art made by my 7 year old nephew, Gavin. He drew it for me, but didn’t tell me anything about it so I thought it was a good chance to attempt to read it on my own. I also had a friend that I work with read it so that we could discuss it and see how our ideas compared. My initial thoughts about the picture were that maybe it was too simple and it would be a stretch to get much meaning or comprehension out of it. So I pulled out some papers that were given to us in class about reading images and understanding indicators of deeper comprehension. Once I was reminded of all of these ideas I should be thinking about, I was amazed at how much information I was actually able to gain from the picture. Then, I discussed it with my friend and she had a completely different idea then I did. And once I heard her idea, it made sense. Unbelievable. What had at first appeared to be almost too simple, wasn’t simple at all.
It was easy to see that this was a picture of a baseball player. I assumed it was Gavin. He loves baseball and his uniform color this year is orange. It looks to me like he is wearing a helmet, which means that either he has just batted, or he is getting ready to bat. I also see that he drew some sort of rectangle or a part of a square at the bottom of the picture. Is this a base? Is he running to the base? Is it home plate? He’s not batting at the moment because there is no bat in the picture and no details of the catcher, umpire, batter’s box, or crowd that would normally be seen in the background from this perspective if he was batting. Is he not really wearing a helmet and instead it’s a baseball cap? If so, this could be a picture of his dad coaching third base. But he’s got cleats on, so it’s probably a player and not a coach. He’s doesn’t have his batting gloves on, and Gavin usually runs the bases with his batting gloves still on. Maybe he’s already had a chance to take them off and put them in his back pocket. I wish there was some background to this picture so I would have more information to base my thinking on. Why did he only choose to draw this person and a portion of a base, but no background? Did he want this person to stand out and have all of the attention? Did he think the background just wasn’t important enough to include? Was he just ready to be finished with the picture, so he didn’t include anything else? Did he think the background would be too difficult and he wouldn’t be able to do it the right way? I know he’s a perfectionist, so it’s a possibility he was unsure how to make it look the way it should.
I also wonder what this person is seeing from his perspective. Is he watching the game? Is something exciting happening? Where is everyone else in relation to him and why aren’t they in the picture? And it still bothers me that I think the base is shown in the picture, but he’s not standing on it! It doesn’t look like he’s running to it, but I have to tell myself that he is running to the base in my mind because it really bothers me. Maybe there’s a reason why he’s purposely off the base. Maybe he wants them to make a play on him so that another runner can advance a base. Is he trying to stir up trouble? To get himself into a pickle? He’s quick, so maybe that’s the plan. This is the point in the ballgame when I feel my blood pressure rising and I think to myself, “I hope you know what you’re doing and you’re not just goofing around.” I can hear the crowd saying, “What’s he doing that for? Get back on the base!” I think to myself, “Maybe the coach has a plan and you guys should just let them listen to the coach instead of confusing them by telling them something different.” He’s only 7. His ballgames shouldn’t be so stressful. What’s it going to be like when he gets older?
Such a simple picture has managed to stir up a lot of feelings for me and has given me a lot of questions. How is this possible? This doesn’t seem to be a complex image. But, as I look at the person I notice a lot of details. Maybe it’s more complex than I thought. The baseball player is wearing cleats, a baseball belt, helmet, and a uniform like Gavin’s. It’s possible that he chose to leave all of the extra things going on around him out of the picture because that’s how he thinks when he is playing ball. Maybe he blocks everything around him out and just focuses on the game. I think presenting it this way made the picture more powerful. Kind of like “less is more”. I was forced to focus on the player and the base. I might not have fixated on the base quite as much if there had been other things going on in the picture to draw away from it. This also let me fill in the blanks as to what was happening in the background. I was able to put the crowd and the other players where I thought they should be so that it made sense to me. I was able to make up a story to go with the picture in my mind and to create how the crowd was reacting to the events in the game. The details weren’t given to me; I had to fill in the blanks in a way that made sense. It was more than just blanks; it was most of the story. I also shared this with a friend to see what her take on the picture was. I was really surprised by what she had to say. She thought maybe he was playing professional ball and his family was cheering him on from the crowd. He looks happy, so the game must be going well. And she wondered where his brothers were. Are they also on his team, or are they cheering from the crowd? Is he smiling at his family in the crowd? Is that why he seems so happy? And is he worth millions yet? As much time as he spends practicing and as much talent as he has, he just might make it. I wonder what his story would be if I asked him to tell me about it. I’m not surprised that he chose to draw a picture about baseball because I know how much he loves sports. Everything he does from now until September will be about baseball. Then it will switch to football. He lives sports all the time, and sports aren’t simple at all.
I chose to read a piece of art made by my 7 year old nephew, Gavin. He drew it for me, but didn’t tell me anything about it so I thought it was a good chance to attempt to read it on my own. I also had a friend that I work with read it so that we could discuss it and see how our ideas compared. My initial thoughts about the picture were that maybe it was too simple and it would be a stretch to get much meaning or comprehension out of it. So I pulled out some papers that were given to us in class about reading images and understanding indicators of deeper comprehension. Once I was reminded of all of these ideas I should be thinking about, I was amazed at how much information I was actually able to gain from the picture. Then, I discussed it with my friend and she had a completely different idea then I did. And once I heard her idea, it made sense. Unbelievable. What had at first appeared to be almost too simple, wasn’t simple at all.
It was easy to see that this was a picture of a baseball player. I assumed it was Gavin. He loves baseball and his uniform color this year is orange. It looks to me like he is wearing a helmet, which means that either he has just batted, or he is getting ready to bat. I also see that he drew some sort of rectangle or a part of a square at the bottom of the picture. Is this a base? Is he running to the base? Is it home plate? He’s not batting at the moment because there is no bat in the picture and no details of the catcher, umpire, batter’s box, or crowd that would normally be seen in the background from this perspective if he was batting. Is he not really wearing a helmet and instead it’s a baseball cap? If so, this could be a picture of his dad coaching third base. But he’s got cleats on, so it’s probably a player and not a coach. He’s doesn’t have his batting gloves on, and Gavin usually runs the bases with his batting gloves still on. Maybe he’s already had a chance to take them off and put them in his back pocket. I wish there was some background to this picture so I would have more information to base my thinking on. Why did he only choose to draw this person and a portion of a base, but no background? Did he want this person to stand out and have all of the attention? Did he think the background just wasn’t important enough to include? Was he just ready to be finished with the picture, so he didn’t include anything else? Did he think the background would be too difficult and he wouldn’t be able to do it the right way? I know he’s a perfectionist, so it’s a possibility he was unsure how to make it look the way it should.
I also wonder what this person is seeing from his perspective. Is he watching the game? Is something exciting happening? Where is everyone else in relation to him and why aren’t they in the picture? And it still bothers me that I think the base is shown in the picture, but he’s not standing on it! It doesn’t look like he’s running to it, but I have to tell myself that he is running to the base in my mind because it really bothers me. Maybe there’s a reason why he’s purposely off the base. Maybe he wants them to make a play on him so that another runner can advance a base. Is he trying to stir up trouble? To get himself into a pickle? He’s quick, so maybe that’s the plan. This is the point in the ballgame when I feel my blood pressure rising and I think to myself, “I hope you know what you’re doing and you’re not just goofing around.” I can hear the crowd saying, “What’s he doing that for? Get back on the base!” I think to myself, “Maybe the coach has a plan and you guys should just let them listen to the coach instead of confusing them by telling them something different.” He’s only 7. His ballgames shouldn’t be so stressful. What’s it going to be like when he gets older?
Such a simple picture has managed to stir up a lot of feelings for me and has given me a lot of questions. How is this possible? This doesn’t seem to be a complex image. But, as I look at the person I notice a lot of details. Maybe it’s more complex than I thought. The baseball player is wearing cleats, a baseball belt, helmet, and a uniform like Gavin’s. It’s possible that he chose to leave all of the extra things going on around him out of the picture because that’s how he thinks when he is playing ball. Maybe he blocks everything around him out and just focuses on the game. I think presenting it this way made the picture more powerful. Kind of like “less is more”. I was forced to focus on the player and the base. I might not have fixated on the base quite as much if there had been other things going on in the picture to draw away from it. This also let me fill in the blanks as to what was happening in the background. I was able to put the crowd and the other players where I thought they should be so that it made sense to me. I was able to make up a story to go with the picture in my mind and to create how the crowd was reacting to the events in the game. The details weren’t given to me; I had to fill in the blanks in a way that made sense. It was more than just blanks; it was most of the story. I also shared this with a friend to see what her take on the picture was. I was really surprised by what she had to say. She thought maybe he was playing professional ball and his family was cheering him on from the crowd. He looks happy, so the game must be going well. And she wondered where his brothers were. Are they also on his team, or are they cheering from the crowd? Is he smiling at his family in the crowd? Is that why he seems so happy? And is he worth millions yet? As much time as he spends practicing and as much talent as he has, he just might make it. I wonder what his story would be if I asked him to tell me about it. I’m not surprised that he chose to draw a picture about baseball because I know how much he loves sports. Everything he does from now until September will be about baseball. Then it will switch to football. He lives sports all the time, and sports aren’t simple at all.