Vincent

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Throwback Thursday #9

Image by Lin Animalart from Pixabay

One of the great things about doing a Throwback Thursday is re-visiting old blog posts.

Today I am throwing back to January 15, 2014 — and a post about seeing Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” painting in person.

I had completely forgotten this visit to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC — probably made with my friends Steve and Kate.

I had not forgotten, however, Don McLean’s lovely (and long) song about Van Gogh.

Doug Hammer and I recorded a version of this song — which eventually I hope to release.

For the time being it is accessible via this 1/15/14 blog post.

I have also included a few iris photos from Pixabay in today’s post because Van Gogh painted iris on more than one occasion..

And I am eager for spring to arrive here in New England!

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Image by Louise Stoehr from Pixabay

I have spent a lot of time shoveling snow in recent days.

Now snow is piled high on both sides of our sidewalk.

This limits one’s visibility when crossing the street…

It also makes parking a challenge for the folks who work in a nearby office building.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

So far this winter our furnace is behaving.

And I haven’t injured my back.

And I remain grateful for food, shelter, electricity, heat and a functioning internet.

All this snow may also help our reservoirs remain in better shape as the year unfolds…

We shall see!

Image by Светлана from Pixabay

Thank you to the wonderful photographers at Pixabay.

And thank YOU for checking out yet another one of my blog posts.

You are always welcome to visit my website — WillSings.com — by clicking here.

PS: More snow (or possibly rain) is forecast in the Boston area for next week…

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The Starry Night

What is it about Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “The Starry Night” that touches so many of our human hearts?

At the end of December I was wandering through the Museum of Modern Art in New York City when I happened upon his masterpiece.

First I noticed the scrum of people who were jockeying for position in front of it.

Then I noticed the guard who had the extraordinary responsibility of making sure that none of the members of the scrum got close enough to damage the painting.

And then I saw it…The Starry Night.

StarryStarryNight

And tears immediately appeared in my eyes.

Even with a crowd of people taking photos of it, taking photos of themselves in front of it, and tweeting and texting their friends about it, “The Starry Night” was serenely, astoundingly beautiful.

I don’t know if I cried partly because I, too, love to gaze at the night sky — amazed at the beauty of the stars and the vastness of the universe — and Van Gogh captures it so well in this painting?

Or if I was reminded of Don McLean’s song “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night),” which speaks so poignantly about how little respect or success Van Gogh earned in his lifetime — as well as his eventual suicide?

The juxtaposition of the clamoring crowd of art-lovers in the 21st century and Van Gogh’s downwardly mobile existence in the 19th century was odd.

Van-Gogh-Self-Portrait

And yet we all still share the same huge questions — about how our finite lives relate to the unimaginably vast realms of space, about what happens to us when our bodies die, about how our wonderful blue-green planet fits into the swirling patterns of the universe, about time…and space…and love…and loss.

Ahh, art.

Ahh, music.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

If you are curious to learn more, here is a link to MOMA’s web page for “The Starry Night.”

Special thanks to pianist Doug Hammer, at whose Dream World studio we recorded the version of “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)” you can hear by clicking at the top of this blog entry.