Download - Art Imitates Life
By Stephanie Palacios
English 102
Second Major Writing Assignment
Art Imitates Life
Arguments and What They Do
Not a yelling match between two or more opinions
• Should be fair and balanced
Should make your audience consider your argument, or re-assess their position
• You do not have to change your opposition’s mind, but you should be able to convince your audience that you make a valid argument
Makes a strong claim
• Aided by a lot of support
The Question: Does Life Imitate Art or Does Art Imitate Life?
The Opposition
• Some, like Oscar Wilde, believe that life imitates art
My Claim
• However, I believe that art imitates life
The Opposition
• Art influences life because it influences people to take action
Why the Opposition is Fallacious
• The opposition’s point of view, that life imitates art, is fallacious because it must be assumed that art is created for no initial reason
• This means that art cannot serve any purpose
• Art like this does not exist; art always seeks to express something
• *Note: We can be influenced by art, but the art is initially created as an imitation of life
My Argument
• Art imitates life
• Art always serves a purpose; usually to get an audience to feel an emotion which will influence him or her to take action
• Even when art is “just for fun” or “just for beauty” it is still imitating a part of life
Examples of Art Imitating Life
• The following slides are photos of art which are among the “10 Most Famous Paintings of All Time” according to touropia.com
Examples of Art Imitating Life
The Scream
Examples of Art Imitating Life
The Creation of
Adam
Examples of Art Imitating Life
The Last Supper
Examples of Art Imitating Life
Starry
Night
Examples of Art Imitating Life
Mona Lisa
Examples of Art Imitating Life
• The following examples of art are of non-paintings
Examples of Art Imitating Life
Notre
Dame
Examples from V for Vendetta
• Mask represented a universal face, fear, power and unification
• Created in response to life struggles
Real Life Use of the Guy Fawkes Mask
• 13 year old Meldoy wore
Guy Fawkes mask to show her
refusal to have her fingerprint
taken into school lunch system
Conclusion
• Art Imitates life
• Life cannot imitate art initially
• Life must occur first because that is where the inspiration for art comes from
• If life imitated art, art could not be created for any reason, and it could not express feelings
• Art can inspire us, but will have been initially created as an imitation of life
Sources Cited
1. How to avoid arguments & how to deal with arguments [digital
image]. 2013 Aug 24 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from:
http://www.turquoisemoon.co.uk/blog/how-to-avoid-arguments-
how-to-deal-with-arguments/
2. Thinking man statue [digital image]. 2012 Mar 27 [cited 2014
Mar 10] Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-
progress/2012/03/27/how-to-develop-5-critical-thinking-types/
3. CORBIS. Christopher Columbus meets the natives as he lands
in the New World [digital image]. 2010 Aug 03 [cited 2014 Mar
10]. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/steve-
jones/7923782/Human-population-our-brushes-with-
extinction.html
Sources Cited Continued
4. Oscar Wilde [digital image]. 2005 Aug 12 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/photo6.htm
5. Vermeer J. The girl with a pearl earring [image]. 2012 Aug 10 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.biographyonline.net/artists/famous-paintings-top-10.html
6. Higgs C. Young critic engaging with John Lavery’s “Portrait of Anna Pavlova” (1911) [digital image]. 2013 Feb 22 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://christopherhiggs.tumblr.com/
Sources Cited Continued
7. Silva J. Photo of The Scream [digital image]. 2014 Jan 21 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.touropia.com/most-famous-paintings/
8. Tripleman. Photo of The Creation of Adam [digital image]. 2014 Jan 21 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.touropia.com/most-famous-paintings/
9. The Creation of Adam [image]. 2010 Mar 29 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.openculture.com/2010/03/a_virtual_tour_of_the_sistine_chapel.html
Sources Cited Continued
10. The Last Supper [digital image]. 2014 Jan 21 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.touropia.com/most-famous-paintings/
11. Tasnaphun T. Photo of Starry Night [digital image]. 2014 Jan 21 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.touropia.com/most-famous-paintings/
12. Mona Lisa [digital image]. 2010 Jun 8 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mona_Lisa.jpg
Sources Cited Continued
13. The Moldau album cover [image]. 2012 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.musicmotion.com/Music-Appreciation/getting-to-know-classical-masterpieces-smetanas-the-moldau.asp
14. Cummings R. Description of the Moldau. ALLMUSIC [Internet]; date unknown [cited 2014 Mar 10]. http://www.allmusic.com/composition/vltava-the-moldau-symphonic-poem-m%C3%A1-vlast-no-2-jb-1112-2-mc0002450313
15. Kubina J. Lincoln memorial statue. 2014 [cited 2014 Mar 10]. Available from: http://www.veteransmemorialstatues.com/2011/07/sculpture-facts/
Sources Cited Continued
16. Thomas A. Notre Dame de Paris [image]. 2012 Mar 31 [cited 2014 Mar
10]. Available from:
http://www.wondermondo.com/Countries/E/France/IleDeFrance/NotreDamePa
ris.htm
17. V in V for Vendetta [digital image]. 2013 Jun 14 [cited 2014 Mar 10].
Available from: http://www.clydefitchreport.com/2013/06/the-dystopia-i-think-
is-better-than-1984/
18. Kirstie. Melody, 13, protesting the United Kingdom's policy of obtaining
biometric data from minors at school [image]. 2014 Feb 11 [cited 2014 Mar
10]. Available from: http://digitaljournal.com/news/world/13-year-old-defies-
big-brother-and-refuses-to-be-fingerprinted/article/370009
19. King J. 13-year-old defies ‘big brother’ and refuses to be fingerprinted.
Digital Journal [Internet]; 2014 Feb 11 [cited 2014 Feb 25]. Available from:
http://digitaljournal.com/news/world/13-year-old-defies-big-brother-and-
refuses-to-be-fingerprinted/article/370009