go van gough go

Starry, starry night

This was an amazing way to end the evening. I landed in Denver just back from a wild weekend at Disneyland and went to the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit at the Denver Art museum...with the dress. 

I never took an art history class, and gained any knowledge I have from my many artist friends, and from dropping into art history courses as a Dean. And so I often have not seen any of the work when I enter an exhibit and can be swept away by the colors and motions in the work before me. The colors swirl in a way that traces the motion of the brush and hand. 

For a short time I see the world through different eyes, through the soul of a man driven to express and exclaim and cry out in joy and pain. I see the world through eyes that are exuberant and yet filled with pain. Laughter and tears pouring out of a palette in a way that words on a page never can.

What if I could write in a way that evoked that mysterious yearning in others? Just once, just one paragraph that drove someone to experience the world in a profound way. Just one sentence. Just one word.

But he never knew that he had this power, for he was not a hero in his own time.

But he left us a pathway to follow. Immersion in something we love, something that fills us, something that overtakes us is a form of art. It is art...and adventure. 

Good night Vincent, and thank you.