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Art and life are complimentary. Art is life and life is art in one sense. When we consider we were created by the Master Artist for His purpose then the life He gave us is art indeed. It is His art and our only choice in the matter is to recognize that and to be willing subjects. After this recognition both art and life become one. This not the kind of art this topic concerns itself with, however, nor is it the subject. Although art and life are not opposites!

Art, the kind that mortal men and women create, is imitative art. It attempts to take nothing but an idea and some paint or clay or some other material and make something new. Remember the story of the artist that painted so realistically that birds pecked at the cherries and attempted to eat them off the bushes in a painting? That may or may not have happened but it illustrates what artists try to do. Or, what artists once tried to do.

The paintings of Carravaggio, (1573-1619) as an example, are quite realistic and although his subject matter has religious themes - most of them were taken from the bible - he painted what he saw. His people have flaws and human emotions; tree leaves show bug eaten places and his floral centerpieces show fruit with spots. He was a genuine artist and in many cases a rogue. He was often at odds with others and such hot headed incident caused him to commit murder.

Yet, looking at his paintings, one is awed at his talent. His nonconformist nature would not permit him go against his art, yet his human nature, his life and his way at looking at art, caused him great stress. Art and life are at odds. It is probable that he understood the emotions and the frictions of art and life far better than those the artists who were conformist. His inability to go against his nature created problems with living. It was his art, however, that identified him and still allows us to reach back five hundred years and get glimpses of his art vs. life.

Looked at in another way and from a more earthy view, art imitates life. What else can it do when in the hands of inept and lacking human beings? Art is at its best when some fleeting human emotion is so powerful an inspiration that it gets created and stands there for others to share in the emotion, sometimes even centuries later.

Art vs. life is, it seems, is forever at odds with each other. It need not be, if seen in the overall context of creation as a whole. The world of which is forever changing, living, dying, bringing forth new out of old, reinventing itself, disappearing, reappearing, is the stuff of real art. Beauty is often from within and is most often something that is not shared collectively, but must be looked at with the mind's eye. Art then is beauty and what is more beautiful than life?

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