Visual Literacy

By using visual literacy with the pieces by Howling Wolf and John Taylor it is clear that one of these drawings is more representational and one is more abstractly done. In my opinion, John Taylor’s drawing would be more representational by the use of shading and the more realistic approach brings it to more of a real life image. As opposed to the abstract take of Howling Wolf’s Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek Lodge. Howling Wolf reduces this image to essential characteristics where we can easily recognize objects in John Taylor’s drawing. John Taylor focuses on only one area of the signing of the peace treaty, the grove, whereas Howling Wolf’s drawing depicts many other aspects within the signing of the peace treaty. This difference shows to me how these two people were influenced or maybe even viewed the treaty signing, it shows the cultural differences between the journalist, John Taylor, and the Native American artist, Howling Wolf. By the limited views shown by John Taylor it suggests to me that John Taylor may have just wanted people to focus on the essential part of the treaty signing and limit the viewers to what is being looked at. Howling Wolf’s work does not, maybe wanting the viewers to see the entire picture rather than just one part. Showing there was a lot of other pieces that went into the treaty signing that affected it rather than the act of signing itself. John Taylor’s work could be viewed as ethnocentric, by the way the Native Americans are portrayed as looking all similar and not showing individuality between any of them, no tribal affiliations or specific identity. Roles of women in both pieces are portrayed very differently and completely opposite of each other. The woman in Howling Wolf’s piece is shown to have played an important role, showing support during the treaty signing. John Taylor doesn’t depict women at all in his piece, showing women were not as shown as such importance.