San Antonio College Library

A remarkable exploration of how shadows have forever fascinated us: their extraordinary hold on our fears and imagination; their importance to astronomers, scientists, philosophers, and artists; their influence on myth and religious beliefs. What's stranger than a shadow? Shadows are messengers from the world of darkness, images that we can't shake off, black spots that have troubled our sleep through the ages. And yet shadows have been the key to...

"Magic is illegal in Newworld, so Maggie struggles to explain the strange shadows--that only she can see--that seem to accompany her new stepfather everywhere"--

This video clip captures toddlers interacting with their shadows. Joey, the first child names his shadow size, calling, "Big, big, big, giant." As teachers, how might we introduce the vocabulary: big, bigger, biggest to provoke his further understanding of relative size? The first child manipulates his shadow by walking closer then further away and also attempts to combine his shadow in the corner, eventually causing his shadow to disappear. When...

Cast shadows have been exploited in art to enhance the impression of the surrounding light as well as that of the solidity of the casting objects. They can contribute to the mood of the scene, and can reveal the presence of features outside the space represented, but as Professor Gombrich points out, they appear only sporadicaly and have been more frequently ignored or suppressed in Western art. Gombrich touches on the ambiguous nature of shadows...