Can You Believe Your Eyes?
By John W. Healy

This child's drawing of a huge mouse (left) and two smaller elephants (at right, one on top of the other) plays with our traditional perceptions of these animals.

My decision to apply to the first college I ever attended was significantly influenced by a brochure. I was a senior in high school, talking with my guidance counselor, and I was drawn to a brochure that featured an image of a palm tree beside a pool of turquoise water. I don't recall what was written on the brochure, but I can still remember that the sky in the picture was clear blue.

I quickly came to a decision. I would spend the rest of my academic life at the school advertised in that brochure.

However, when I arrived at that university, I found the turquoise pool drained and the palm tree cut down. Classes were held in dismal, utilitarian World War II Quonset huts.

Take a good look around
This awful experience taught me that it's a bad idea to make decisions and take action without having as much information as possible. Things aren't always what they seem.

I also learned that images can be manipulated to persuade, orient or instill a particular point of view – another reason why it's important to gather information from as many different sources as possible before forming an opinion or taking action.

We have an opportunity to teach our students how to be informed consumers, how to evaluate the images with which they are presented.

The tricks of the trade
An awareness of art techniques that are commonly used to influence opinion can assist children in seeing more than the merely obvious. Hopefully, they'll learn to see that what the image was designed to project may be different from what occurs in reality.

Some factors that influence how we perceive reality in an image include:

• Size – Subjects in proportion to the picture are made much larger or smaller than they actually are. Example: A mouse, drawn very large, is placed next to an elephant, drawn very small.
• Juxtaposition – The placement of different subjects within the image frame. Example: People or objects positioned higher or lower to indicate importance, authority or the lack thereof.
• Distortion – Things in an image that are rendered unlike they actually are. The true form of an object may be stretched, made jagged, melted, portrayed wider or thinner than it actually is, etc. Example: Geometric structures (such as buildings) rendered in wavy lines.
• Use of Light and Dark – Well-lit areas of an image tend to be interpreted as optimistic and positive. Darkened areas of an image may communicate feelings of gloom. Light and darkness used together can create a dramatic presentation of the subject of an image.
• Framing – An image may be cropped to focus the viewer on only a small portion of the image. It's helpful to think of a picture frame that's adjustable in size. You can accomplish this effect in class with two L-shaped pieces of cardboard. Hold them in such a way that they form a frame, then move them closer together and farther apart to change the size of the framed opening they create. Example: A closely-cropped image of a speaker delivering a powerful speech at a lofty podium might take on a whole different meaning when a wider view of the event reveals only a sparse group of listeners in the audience.

Art activity
The following activity can help children learn some art techniques that demonstrate how images can influence one's perception of reality.

Ask the children to draw something that is considered small, such as a mouse, a pencil or a bug. Then ask them to draw, on the same piece of paper, something that is considered large, such as a house, a car or an elephant.

Give each of the children a second piece of paper and ask them to draw something that is considered small, but to draw it very large. Next to that image, have them draw something that is considered very large, but draw it very small.

Compare the two drawings and ask the students to identify which one is more realistic.

Let the viewer beware
When we go to the grocery store, the persuasive imagery on the products we buy is tempered by nutritional information and, sometimes, government warnings that appear on the packaging so we can make informed choices. Much of what we consume intellectually, however, carries no warning labels. We are exposed to a great many coercive images throughout our lives, especially during an election year like this one. Teaching our students to analyze what they see will benefit them in every area of their lives.

Dr. John W. Healy teaches art at Woodland Middle School, East Meadow, NY.