An Illusionary World

Those who are artists see the world in all of its beauty. Those who are the beautiful people become art, and the beautiful things of this world become the same. Truth is the arms dealer, supporting and allying itself with art and beauty while doing the same with the spectator, and yet turning the parties on one another and becoming a puppet master, pulling the strings on art and beauty while covering the spectator with a veil. In beauty, art, or truth, one may find traces of the either two elements. Still, the remaining two may yet not be present at all, or even acting in opposition to one another. The way the three interact is determined by the spectator, and the fallibility of humanity makes all such determinations fantastically wrong.

What is art is indeed determined by the spectator as well, reliant upon whether an individual is enlightened or ignorant. The nature of a spectator, in regards to art, is not decided by any particular walk of life, but rather the openness one has concerning the matter. Being open is crucial to observing art, not only to its identification, but also concerning its meaning as, for the most part, art is created. The creator or method of creation is irrelevant, but art is created, not inherent, setting it apart from truth and beauty. Therefore, there is intent or latent meaning in it. Whatever those qualities manifest as are the product of an enlightened spectator. Yet, the measure of true understanding could lie in how strongly a detail is perceived or in how many qualities are perceived. The matter of truth manifests itself in this occasion, and one person's truth may not exist for another. The beauty in a piece is another matter entirely, a sense of what is beautiful being defined on both a cultural and individual basis. Art simply exists after its creation, and in art, beauty and truth can be both discovered and overlooked.

Beauty is just as easy to imagine as it is to overlook, and it is easier to redefine beauty than it is to find beauty in the world around us. Beauty is everything people want it to be, and rarely something that can be reached. In our society, many individuals will detect what they consider to be beautiful upon a glance of the world. If asked what beauty is in a person, many will either respond with their initial thoughts, yet are outnumbered by those that define beauty as being more than physical, an internal beauty defining what is truly glorious. Neither of these answers are true. Beauty may be found in any piece of art, the truth being that it exists, and the truth being that it is a phantom that may never be discovered in its entirety. A piece of art may have an initial beauty to it, but over time, after long preponderance of that beauty, its luster fades, and so it is assigned meaning beyond its visual appeal. This meaning will last longer and perhaps even hold more worth, but it is not an instinctual appeal. The opposite example being a piece that has no initial visual appeal, but an intellectual beauty an example being a piece of writing. The author's words hold a unique beauty, yet just meaningful words have, in fact, no meaning. Therefore, people create images or physical sensations, and the beauty of the piece is reincarnated in another form. Truth haunts all beauty; beauty is truly appealing and true beauty's appeal fades.

Truth is both the shoulder angel and devil, casting shadows in its absence and casting illusions in its presence. There is no such thing as one truth, there can, in fact, be many versions of the truth. Therefore, if there is no absolute truth, the word itself creates a paradox. Truth has this relationship with everything it touches. The movie Les Miserables depicts an inspector, Javert, who spends years of his life pursuing one man as a result of his version of the truth, never seeing the other side of the story. A classic example of the presence of truth, Javert is blinded by his truth. Yet, is not seeing only one point of a matter the antithesis of truth? Someone or something can indeed be considered beautiful by an individual. The same object may hold no charm or appeal whatsoever to another. Both sides hold their own logical reasons for the matter, and both sides are correct; there is a falsity in truth that is unlike any other. What is art is as much a question of truth as what beauty is, and holds the same answer for the same reason. The only truth about truth is that it is always wrong for the same reasons: it is based on opinion.

A beautiful flower, a painting of a flower, an acknowledgement of the flower's appeal, and an acknowledgement of the flower's demise all share the same basis in opinion. The three aspects that lend themselves to describing the world, excluding as much as they include, and becoming filters through which everything may be seen as an individual desires. The most pure forms of these filters may never be glimpsed, absolute truth as unattainable as universal beauty, and as unimaginable as perfect art. The institutions which so many consider vital to the human experience are as flawed as their creators.