Everyday Canvas

Perfect Life versus Brilliance

Prompt: “A perfect life makes horrible art.” -- Chris Rock, comedian
If you had a perfect life, would you give it up to create brilliant artwork of any kind?

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Heck, no, to the idea of a perfect life against creating brilliance! With respect to Chris Rock, there is no such thing as a perfect life. Inside the soup that is put in front of each one of us, one fly or even a swarm of flies always exist.

Still, supposing there is such a thing as a perfect life, would I give it up for artwork? Maybe or maybe not. I mean, I am in love with perfection, okay, even near perfection. On the other hand, being able to create such a brilliant anything would be part of what I would call perfection, too. To refrain from creating would have made my imaginary perfect life imperfect.

Yet, the psychologists and those who do those questionable statistics claim that people who have had to suffer or fight against and survive the early-life difficulties produce better writing and other artwork. I think, this, too, is an iffy supposition because writers and painters from easier and more nurturing backgrounds have produced just as brilliant work, too.

In this category, what first pops up into my head are two names, although we’ll never know the ins and outs of their seemingly better early lives. One is Jean Francois Millet whose work is said to influence Van Gogh, and the other is Sir Joshua Reynolds, who learned the apothecary trade in his teens and who later said: “"I would rather be an apothecary than an ordinary painter, but if I could be bound to an eminent master, I would choose the latter." He is a master all right, and both these men in their earlier lives, despite the biographers claims that their childhoods were storm-free, had to work very hard, one in his father’s farm, the other with serious studies.

Then, I thought of Hemingway and checked up on him:
http://www.lostgeneration.com/childhood.htm
Hemingway’s childhood, too, on the surface, seemed easier. That is, he didn’t lose either parent, didn’t experience hunger or other misfortunes, and he had at least one parent who took an interest in him. This goes to show that having that so-called easier life is in no way a hindrance to creating brilliance.

So sorry, Chris Rock and those who think the earlier misfortunes have something to do with talent and brilliance, what you say doesn’t hold water, at least for me.