The art piece known as “Alley By The Lake” is a diverse piece of art that can be perceived in many ways. To me, looking at this painting is like looking at life from a different perspective. Life has so much to offer and is so beautiful, but can be one of our biggest struggles. This piece of art, by Leonid Afremov, has a lot of dimension, meaning you can look at it in many ways. From the trees, to the lake, we all see things a bit differently and I feel like it comes from what we have experienced in our lives.

The first thing that I notice is the contrast of the warm colors on the left meeting with the chilly blue sky. The chocolate trees stand tall like they are guarding the doors of the path. While looking at the painting, I get both a sense of peace and the feeling of an icy chill. The left side reminds me of when the leaves begin to change in the autumn just before they fall to the ground. The sky meets in the center giving a black kind of smokey feel as if it’ building up to a storm. Walking down a wet path, gazing ahead at the beautiful scenery while standing next to someone, you feel safe.

As the man and woman walk down the path sharing a yellow umbrella, I can't help but wonder if they know each other or if they just met on that day. Their demeanor gives me the feeling that they are comfortable being so close. As the path wanders forward like a red carpet event escorting the celebrities, I wonder where it leads to next. Does it symbolize the path of life walking between the good on the left and the darker days as depicted on the right? Or is there no significance there?

This bright path which they call the path of life is almost solidly covered in an inch of rain. Although this rain may seem like a nuisance, it allows the two who are walking to gaze at each other's reflections almost as if the puddles show who they really are. Looking at this painting I picture the sweet smell of rain and the scent of the fallen leaves. I can also picture myself walking down the path, by the lake, sharing an umbrella with my future husband as I breathe in that sweet, crisp smell of fall. Picturing this brings me to my future; as I look up and off to the left, past my husband, I see the different tones of the leaves melting into a slow song. Lost in the beauty, I suddenly feel raindrops on my forehead and I am abruptly back in reality.

As diverse as this picture is, it is also very simple. Sometimes I take the simple things in life for granted, I need to slow down and enjoy all of what life has to offer. Life is all about mindset, I am the one who decides if I am going to look at life from a positive point of view or from a negative point of view. I choose to look at life from a positive point of view. It can be easy to focus on the dark side, like the right side of the painting. Life isn't just black and white, it is full of beautiful color. Sometimes we need to lose ourselves in the color in order to find ourselves in the black and white.