10 Aug Life is Short, Art is Long
Vita brevis, ars longa.
— Hippocrates
I’ve always feared being average; but if I am, I have 16 years’ life expectancy, according to the CDC.
Not a cheery thought.
A stalwart pragmatist, Hippocrates opened his medical textbook Aphorisms by noting that time limits what a doctor can accomplish: Life is short, art is long.
Stalwart romantics, artists for 2,500 years have flipped the phrase, insisting, “Art outlives the artist.”
Both meanings are true.
Like medicine, it takes a long time to master oil painting; longer than some of us have.
Time’s the enemy.
And you hope, after you’re gone, your paintings still linger to grace people’s walls.
For a while, anyway.
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