Maybe this will help, Meredith, but maybe not - we'll see :)

I feel like maybe this reading wasn't necessarily assigned to us for us to think that the picture changes reality, like Picasso and Stein, that Picasso truly created an image that was different from Stein in reality, I think instead it was meant to show us how valuable a picture or image is.

Here are my other thoughts:
*Because pictures and images are things we can return to and they will not change, they have a large impact on us, as opposed to reality, which we cannot freeze or come back to exactly. Therefore, even if the image isn't exactly real, it can alter our thoughts

*Power of pictures :Plans in pictures help us to visualize what we will create, words can provide context, but a picture is best, especially when we are hoping to communicate our ideas to another person

*I was wondering if the bottom of page 712 was referring to looking at something with or without outside influence?

*Artists/creators have power over the interpretation of the subject he/she created, BUT the interpreter obviously has the final say/decisions/interpretation of the piece, especially if they do not get to speak with the creator; Though Picasso has control over his art, we still have control over the interpretation, and that interpretation is restricted to the interpreter's (mine/our) thoughts