On the first stop of my artistic journey, it would seem appropriate to dedicate this site to my favorite artist and painting. Perhaps the background of my blog would seem a modern day version of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, Starry Night. Take a look and you will see some very similar traits. The tall figure on the left with flowing skies and a sleeping village/city beneath. I don’t know the artist that put this web design together, perhaps he/she was influenced by Vincent’s work. Anyway, I thank them for their design and I love the look of my blog. It seems very fitting.
I had the opportunity to see some of Vincent’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently, although Starry Night was not one of the exhibits. His use of color and brush strokes are incredible and my love for his work is greatly enhanced.
Don Mclean’s song Vincent captures the essence of Vincent VanGogh’s paintings and his life.
Starry, starry night:
Paint your palette blue and gray.
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills.
Sketch the trees and the daffodils;
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land.
Now I understand
What you tried to say to me,
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen; they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.
Starry, starry night:
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze;
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue:
Morning fields of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen; they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.
For they could not love you
But still, your love was true.
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do.
But I could've told you, Vincent:
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.
Starry, starry night:
Portraits hung in empty halls:
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget;
Like the strangers that you've met:
The ragged men in ragged clothes.
The silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.
Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me,
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen; they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will.
"It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to.... The feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures."
Vincent VanGogh
"We spend our whole lives in unconscious exercise of the art of expressing our thoughts with the help of words."
Vincent VanGogh
This blog is not a history lesson about artists but merely a meditation of thoughts on works of art both historical and modern. To see more about Vincent VanGogh there is a website dedicated entirely to him at
http://www.vangoghgallery.com.
