Undergraduate / Creative work of art-Commonapp Personal essay [9]

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Describe a creative work of art that has had an influence on you and explain that influence.

One look at my replicas of the Mona Lisa or Botticelli's Birth of Venus will tell you all you need to know about me and painting; it is certainly not one of my talents. Yet, nature's fascinating way of ultimate balance and harmony left me with a high affinity for paintings as a compromise. I believe every stroke of the brush conveys a unique sensation and that the complete artwork embodies a whole conception of the artist. This conception is what I search for within any painting I come across. The very first time I saw the surrealist painting The Treachery of Images by René Magritte, I knew the piece was a unique one. Little did I know however, that what I sought in the painting, would significantly transform my life in the subsequent years.

Like every other surrealist work, The Treachery of Images plays on the element of surprise and awkward comparison. In this simple painting, René Magritte puts quite some effort into depicting a 20th century smoking pipe. He gives the pipe's bowl and part of its stem a brown color and then introduces a thin bronze ring between the stem and the black mouthpiece. The painting has a general glossy effect which ensures it's strikingly realistic look. Actually, he portrays the pipe with such astounding elegance that you would bet it was merely a local smoking-pipe company's advertisement. But everything changes when u see the caption underneath the picture; "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe). This seemed quite ridiculous to me. Why go through all the trouble to paint an elegant pipe only to say afterwards that it wasn't a pipe? Rene argued that indeed that his painting was not a pipe but an image of a pipe but everyone knew that the renowned surrealist artist was implying more than just the obvious. What really was René's idea here?

Before I saw the painting, I understood reality as the things that I saw or knew existed. My perception of reality was limited to my knowledge and experiences. In any situation I faced, I sought solutions within that enclosed field. As I pondered over the painting and general comments on it, I realized that Magritte was merely raising doubts on man's visual representation of the world around him. The only reason why I thought the painting was a pipe was because I saw a pipe. The fact that my eyes were unable to accurately differentiate an image from reality was actually calling my sense of sight into question. In other words, reality as I see it might just be an image of the actual reality.

Amazingly, Magritte's idea transformed the core of my being. I reckon there is a part of reality that I have not yet encountered and thus know little about. I cannot then be satisfied with the normal things I know. I began to look at situations with a whole different perspective. Now when I am confronted by any problem, whether academically or socially, I do not only consider the normal approach but I try to think out of the box. This concept, in a way, has increased my desire for alternative strategies and suggestions on issues. I have learnt to search for things beyond the obvious and to think beyond the normal. The normal, I now realize, is just a restriction we have put on reality.