Musings on Art and Beauty

"It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance . . . and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process." Henry James


Henry James, here, is saying that art has no substitute in making life beautiful, interesting, or important and that life is inherently beautiful. But going off his quote, is it possible for human beings to lead ugly lives or do we all lead some beautiful life in one way or another? Are all our lives somehow beautiful? The convict and the artist live a beautiful life together? That seems like a quite unruly statement to make, however, I think one can see beauty in many things such as films like It's a Beautiful Life and American Beauty tend to show us.


Moreover, art does equate with life because we began as creative beings and those who try to suppress the artistic, creative impulses of human beings is doing humanity a disservice. I think it is important for everyone to be creative and artistic on different levels, because not everyone wants to be an artist or a writer and that is acceptable, but everyone should be creative for humanity's continuation as a successful species. And the artists bring the greatest beauties to humanity, without which we would never be able to redeem ourselves from sharp blankets of pain and despondency we feel.