Art and Illusion-

My son asked me if art is just an illusion.

I paused and answered yes- that’s all it is. 

It’s not real trees you see on a canvas- it’s pigment, binders, and oils.  The shadows aren’t really cast by leaves, it’s just changes in value and temperature.  The sun doesn’t burn brightly past the mountains- it’s a quick glob of cad yellow or orange or pink perhaps against a neutral.

None of it is real. Not even the abstract:

I thought of Magritte and The Treachery of Images- This is Not a Pipe.  I remember the first I saw it was in college in an art history book.  It totally stopped me in my tracks- But it is a smoking pipe-

It is the illusion of one.  It’s the fabrication our brains and eyes form as Truth woven out of line and color in a familiar pattern. 

All of this, just illusion. 

When I sketched some trees a few days later- I focused on drawing the shapes between the branches and trunks- and my eyes and mind did the rest of the work to make it appear as a tree.

We are Magicians, we Artists- waving our magic wands in circles before us- and making the crowds astounded at what they think they see- Sunsets, oceans, clouds, figures, flowers- an Illusion.