When Life Imitates Art

A few weeks ago I revisited one of my favorite past times, the theatre. A friend and I went to see the stage production of Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. While watching the play it dawn on me how we has human beings imitate the beauty and sometimes twisted nature of art. Art is the outlet of dreams, expression of the soul, the vivid expression of creativity, but if you think about those same words can represent the very real images of life as well. In the play, the main character Dorian Gray is the object of affection to one of his friends, Basil. Basil paints this gorgeous portrait of Dorian however, it startles Dorian because it captures his innocence and youth. Like most of us, afraid of getting old, Dorian exchanges his soul to keep physical youth and have the portrait of himself take the beatings of life. While exchanging his soul Dorian also exchanges morality for condemnation and compassion for heart-less rage.

As the play progressed I realized, how true life really does imitate art. From 9/11 to the first man on the moon, both of those in their own right would be considered figments in someone's imagination, in fact Destination Moon was 1950 film about man traveling to the moon, 19 years later Neil Armstrong stepped his way into history books. Now granted those are two extreme examples of life imitating art, just observe and think about the everyday actions and images and connect them with the surreal world of art, but nowadays its seems the reverse, art is real, life is surreal.