Why Balance Between Reality and Illusion Is Important

The epitome of art in contemporary illusionistic consumer based America has come down to a faltering ability to distinguish between reality and illusion, ultimately and ironically, we are in an unprecedentedly unknown battle against “Balance”. If you are a hypersensitive molecule of a human being who cannot take a single ounce of criticism, you as we all have become a victim of our own rage which inhibits mental movement and flexibly, hindering our abilities to seek an understanding. We all have concepts and almost absolute notions between what’s real and an illusion in our minds, I know it’s going to sound strange, but our perception of reality should not stem from the individual, rather be seen as the collective reality within the mind of our society. For the, mere reasoning that the “Individual” is nothing more than an illusion, rendering most of  his perceptions of reality a falsification, “what the heck is this fool talking about I’m no “Illusion”, and how does this relate to art?” Inevitably in order to understand, we must first use the mind of society to distinguish between the eclectic definition of reality as truth, and “Illusion” as lies.

Reality is truth, and truth is what is real. If this idea can be grasped then you will no longer perceive “abstract” paintings instead you will be able to recognize reality when you see it. For the concept of “abstract” has long been defined as something that is unrecognizable. However, the truth in “abstract” paintings like De Kooning’s, Pollock’s, and Rothko’s is inextricable, but in order to know, one must be aware of the definition of “Illusion”. Illusions are imitations and false trickery essentially lies. Meaning a painting that is trying to heavily imitating the real world is unfortunately bogged down with the element of Illusion, which is more commonly seen in classically traditional works of the Salon as it was prominent during the impressionist era. In the short run abstract works were a revolt against illusionistic paintings; yet do not eradicate from my words a claim to only paint in terms of truth. We must not abrogate balance in our creations of illusions and truth’s, for if you are riding a bike leaning only on one side, you will suffer a horrible crash.

It’s natural that in art we have turned to elements of illusion for thousands of years, the reason being our primary source of pleasure is derivative of illusion. For example, when looking at the skin of a beautiful woman once touched it tends to lose its effect, however before you touch the skin you fantasize ever so tragically about textures and feels it might posses. Meaning having touched the skin of a beautiful woman a physical reality sinks in as opposed to the infinitely imaginative. Other forms of common infantile fantasy based pleasure are photographs, movies, advertisements, magazines, ect. We must ensure that illusions do not replace real life experiences for we are a culture obsessed with the pleasures of illusion, our voracious appetite for fantasy will surely unbalance the existence of mankind. Anyone who knows and can see truth finds all the amusements accepted by this society unbearable.

If you are lost in a forest, how will you get out? Look at the stars, tree patterns, rivers, or desperately try to get a signal on your I-phone? Well before you do all those things you must first be able to distinguish between your left and right side that is called “Balance”. Balance is a truth that exigently demands to be kept within and outside the human body and mind. With that idea must come the acceptance of our limitations in terms of perception, for we only perceive the world through the human eyes. It must be known that everything we see is a real-illusion containing one or more of each element. Case and point, a glass of water with a pen inside, when looking through the glass the pen is distorted, that is the real-illusion. In terms of painting line is a real-illusion, but more of an illusion for it is not seen in nature, in nature line is created through the unification of blocks of color. Everything perceived through are vision essentially is a real-illusion. Even a metal table, we perceive a solid object that occupies space, but in reality there are billions of atoms united for the time being that take the form of a table, however we perceive the table through human perception not microscopic perception, making that table a true table to us as a society. There is also the problem, of wanting truth and being given truth but not being able to recognize it, for we have only seen glimpses.