What If Your Life Weren’t Real?

What came first, real life or the painting? I’m asking because sometimes, it feels like life imitates art and other times, art imitates life. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” Shakespeare said.

Take a look at the following image. It looks like a photo, but it’s a painting. The incredible detail is amazing, from the labels on the bottles to the paint stains on the man’s pants. It’s the detail that brings the picture to life. In person, the lighted image looks three-dimensional, but unfortunately, the photo has flattened the image.

If you’re a highly imaginative writer or a philosophical one, you’ve probably asked yourself if humans are possibly living in their own dream universe. Maybe someone is watching us, and we are the actors in a movie.

A change in perspective is needed. Take a look at the artwork below. No, it’s not an upside photo. The label next to it shows that this is the way that the work is meant to be presented. It’s an upside-down tree. Or maybe we are the ones looking at the world from the wrong way up… or down.

What do you think? Even if you’re not a writer, the question must have crossed your mind at some point. What if life weren’t real? What if you’re a character in a story? Or a character in a picture, like the rose or the fruit captured in the painting of the first photo?

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