“A picture is worth 1,000 words.” Is it true? I have always been more drawn to pictures than words due to my long and hard struggle with literacy. As a person who grew up entertaining myself with the pictures in books, I learned that images are a valid method of portraying information. Even after reading the books properly, my understanding of the story’s beats did not change. To this day, I prefer visuals to just writing. Though I know this is not a universal feeling, I set out on a journey to see if the meaning of an image can be transferred into words.

The way I chose to go about this data collection is by no means the most accurate or precise, but it was fun, so it’s fine. I first picked a piece: Gustav Klimt’s Death and Life, a work with a comprehensive theme contrasting the bleakness of death with the beauty of life. Then, I took the description of this piece (much less than 1,000 words because I respect my volunteers’ time) and read it to volunteers who would then draw it. While the results varied a lot more than one would expect, I believe the vague theme of death being bad and life being good could be found in all of them.

Now, take a looky loo:

But first, this is the description that all volunteers heard.

“Two very clearly separated parts. To the left, we see Death. Death is depicted as the classic Grim Reaper, a grinning skull, covered in a dark robe adorned with symbols. The main symbol we see covering Death is that of the cross.

To the right, we see Life. We see a number of young women lying on a flower bed. We see a newly created life, a baby, lying in their arms. We see a muscular man holding one of the women, and we see an older woman also lying in the middle of the group. The depiction thus covers people, young and old, with a focus on adults in their prime. There is an overrepresentation of women in the painting, which could refer to women as the source of all life. It could also reflect Klimt’s preference for depicting women, preferably somewhat undressed. All the subjects are somewhat covered by cloth bearing numerous symbols.”

One feature of the original piece that stays consistent throughout all the drawings is the depiction of Death. I believe this is both because it is the first thing mentioned in the text and because it is such a common image in media today. On the other hand, the depiction of Life is much more vague. While this could be a representation of the uncertain nature of life and the inevitability of death, I believe it is actually due to the fact that asking six inexperienced artists to draw the human form is bound to lead to such results. In the end, I feel like I wound up learning more about my volunteers’ art and minds than I had originally set out to do. But I also believe that is one of the things that makes pictures so much more valuable than words.