Journal of Art for Life by an authorized administrator of DigiNole Commons. For more information, please contact lib-ir@fsu.edu.

The marriage of art and life has always seemed an ideal one to me, until a recent children's art contest in the City of Richland, WA prompted me to rethink it. In this article, I will discuss the limitations of the marriage of art with life. My discussion is drawn from objects submitted in the children’s art contest, observations of conflicting examples of public art, conversations about the role of public art and the reasons for both positive and negative perceptions toward public art. Questions such as “should there be a limit for the marriage of art and life? ” and “what are the reasons for the perceived conflicts about public art? ” serve as focal points for my discussion. I wish to bring awareness of the many factors affecting our perceptions of art and to make suggestions to promote aesthetic appreciation in art instruction.