Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
— Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying, 1889
Mimesis. The act of imitation.
The classic philosophers Plato and Aristotle both held that all art was reflective, imitating nature or the world of life around us.
Art imitates life.
Oscar Wilde and other writers throughout the years have challenged this thought. Wilde’s assertion was that humans are basically imitators whose aim is to express themselves and that Art offers a variety of forms or templates in which they might realize that aim.
Life imitates art.
This question of whether Art imitates Life or vice versa is the idea behind this new painting, a smaller 12″ by 12″ canvas that I am calling Imitatio. I am not sure which side this piece takes.
Maybe both?
Life imitating Art might make the most sense here. The scene in the painting– the Art here–is much more orderly while the scene representing Life is cluttered and in disarray. Life, even in its best attempts to imitate Art, is generally messier and subject to the whims of character and conflict.
But again, I can’t be positive of this in this case.
Maybe it should be a little of both, with a flow running back and forth between the two, Life and Art. This in turn forms an endless cycle, a sort of perpetual energy creator.
Now, that sounds like the best option. We may have a winner here.
And I can live with that…
Redtree Times 