Rachel Hrovat--Class discussion on Art as Imitatation

Plato came up with the concept of art as imitation that discusses how art is not original but rather is a copy, like how art imitates nature. Harrisson on the other hand sees art as an atempt to improve upon nature and to take out the so called ugle aspects of it to make it seem more along the lines of perfection. But we can run into a problem of having an imitation of an imitation once art is removed as an imitation and is no longer part of nature. Plato's idea is that we have visions of the beauty and then create, or actually see the beauty and then recreate and try to improve what we see. It is kind of a prideful process if you think about it. That we take what we see and not just try to recreate what we see to share with others, but rather we try to make it look better in our own eyes before we show it to others. I guess the statement "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" correlates perfectly with this idea of improving upon nature. The artists takes what is beautiful and makes it more beautiful, but only in his own eyes. It could not be deemed beautiful by a third party.