Thursday, February 28, 2013

A different kind of art experience

Wow. It’s been awhile! Sorry for the unplanned hiatus. It’s been a crazy few weeks here with everyone taking turns getting sick and I have been working hard at a new project….But I'm back!

I want to share with you the amazing exhibit I got to see. I know that I usually promote female artists, but thankfully there have been A LOT of amazing men out there who inspire as well. In fact, the three artists who have inspired my work more than any others are men. Mark Rothko and his amazing color fields; Picasso with his genius and ability to constantly change and re-invent himself artistically;  and Chuck Close, who got me addicted to grids and the ability to combine realism and abstract.

But, today is about a different artist- Van Gogh. I don’t think I have truly appreciated him enough before seeing this exhibit. His canvases do come to life. The colors and emotion in his paintings are amazing! I have been to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, and I have loved Van Gogh’s work, but this exhibit brought me into his work, made me feel a part of his art and his world. It was an amazing experience.

I am talking about the "Van Gogh Alive" experience. -


It is a new kind of exhibit - one that I am all for.  Now, I LOVE museums! I mean, I really, really LOVE them. I can spend days (and I have!) walking around museums. You can taste all kinds of art in one place; be inspired not only by the artist’s work, but thanks to amazing curators, sometimes I feel like I am getting a peek into the artist’s head. I find it inspiring to see others’ creative thought processes. It is fascinating to me.

But this is a completely different experience. If you go into the link above and click on video, you will see what I mean. Walking though this exhibit, you feel like you are inside Van Gogh’s paintings. Not only are his paintings all around you, but inspiring words from letters he had written are displayed across the ceiling and floor, along with beautiful classical music. 
One of these quotes -"I wish they 
would just take me as I am"
was displayed with all of his self 
portraits.














So, if you get a chance to see this exhibit- go. I saw it in Tel Aviv, but I don’t know where it is traveling to next but it is a great way to see art in a new atmosphere. Even if you are not a huge art lover like me, you would still enjoy the experience.


I will leave you with some more Van Gogh quotes to inspire, and wishing you all a peaceful, loving and relaxing weekend.

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”

“If you hear a voice within you say „you cannot paint“, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”


“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”

“It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.”

“...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”

“Close friends are truly life's treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.”


“Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, ‘You can't do a thing’. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of `you can't' once and for all.”

“At present I absolutely want to paint a starry sky. It often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without my expatiating on this theme it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky.”


“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you're put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.

Vincent van Gogh―