Prompt 4

An image is a visual representation of something else. An image can be many things- a photograph, a drawing, a painting, a sculpture and more. It can also exist as a memory or a thought in someone’s mind. An image can be a representation of a physical object, an idea, an emotion, a place, a time, etc.

Images are powerful because they have the ability to describe things in a way that words cannot.  Spoken language and visual language each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Words can be restricting because they are attached to a meaning and a stereotype, and once a certain word is chosen a sentence can take on an entirely new meaning. Images can be attached to a stereotype, but they are not as restricted to a meaning as words. There is no dictionary or societal definition that an image specifically means one thing. Images are flexible and they have the ability to “speak 1,000 words” without saying words at all. They convey a message but because of their lack of explicitness the viewer is forced to make an internal opinion of what they are looking at. In this way an image forces the viewer to have a conversation with it; viewing an image involves looking at the message put forth but also interpreting what the image means to them. People can have this kind of conversation when reading if they choose to, but this does not automatically happen in the manner that happens with an image.

An exciting thing that happens in art is that although images are a representation of reality they also become reality. This concept is evident while considering installations or galleries of rooms filled with images. When an image becomes a part of a physical space it is not just a representation but also a physical part of a room. For me this is the greatest part about being an artist- you can take an idea of anything you want and in a way you can make it real.