What really happened on that Starry~Starry~Night!
(An oldie but a goodie! LOL)
Pen & Watercolour Copyright 2007 Jean Burman
See? He wasn’t mad afterall… just a little “troubled” ’tis all! We knew that all along right?
In the news this week… revelations of the secret pact between Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin which secured Gauguin’s freedom from prosecution… shored up their fragile friendship… and effectively silenced the truth for all these years. History is becoming curiouser and curiouser!
Poor old Vincent… hailed a madman for the past hundred years [or so] for allegedly cutting off his own ear in a fit of madness and despair… was this week vindicated of the crime. I don’t know about you… but the revelation that it was in fact Paul Gauguin who sliced off Vincent’s ear with a sword [as you do]… as Vincent tried to stop him from leaving his little yellow house in Arles… seems so much more plausible to me. I mean for heaven’s sake… if you’re going to lose an ear for whatever reason… why not share the fun and let a friend have a “hand” in it? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth or some such? Why… even Bill Shakespeare was all for the lending of an ear to random friends romans and countrymen alike…(grin)
How their secret pact lay dormant for as long as it did under the close scrutiny of art historians and academics is beyond speculation… but someone on history keeping’s slippery slope slipped up somewhere!
I have sometimes wondered what lies ahead for artists whose work is the only thing left behind to speak for them after their death. With history in the hands of mere mortals anything could happen. And knowing the propensity we humans have for whipping up a storm of gossip, innuendo, outright lies and downright controversy [if we can at all possibly "swing it"]… and given the added penchant for art critics and commentators to “read into” a painting whatever “deeper meaning” seems appropriate to their mood at the time… well… you might agree that history would naturally become a little bit “sketchy” over time…(okay okay…pun intended)
So… with history revised… it appears that Vincent was not at all unlike the rest of us. A little mad at times perhaps… and yes granted… just a tad more talented. (grin) But tragically human all the same!
Artwork Copyright 2007 Jean Burman
In many ways we artists still “see what he saw”. And still “feel as he did”. He too struggled to keep his head above water and his heart in the right place. He ached for the companionship of kindred spirits and longed for understanding (and a modicum of recognition) from a less than sympathetic public.
History has it that he died a broken man… mentally emotionally spiritually and financially. What a joke it would now seem to him that… a century too late to pay the bills… collectors have attached a multi-million dollar price tag to the artwork of a madman! Now that he has been declared sane [even if only approximately so] it will be interesting to see if “loyalty” and not “madness” will continue to hold monetary value in the work.
Only time (and history) will tell.
And we already know how transient and unreliable that can be!
Hope you like the re-worked website. Finally. But not final at all. This place will be a work in progress for a little while yet to come. Any comments/suggestions will be gratefully received!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Just testing to see if the comments function is working. Heck it’s kinda quiet around here… LOL
I still have a way to go with uploading new work etc. to the website and getting it to enlarge onscreen. I also have plans for a dedicated cartoon gallery which should be fun. So stay tuned… it’s a work in progress!
Now… to see if it works…
Yep… it works!
Yeah the comment section works! Great stuff as always Jean – and a nice pic of you as well. I think the world has gone quiet whilst it holds it breath to see what happens next. But I am sure the sun will rise tomorrow. In the meantime – keep painting, keep writing and keep doing what you do.
All the best,
Andrew
X
Thanks AG
So great to see you! Hey… we’ve got some kind of zany complementary colour scheme going with our gravatars… how neat! LOL
I think you’re right. People seem to be sitting on their hands waiting to see if the world “as we know it” is going to end. I don’t know what they’re waiting for because there’s nothing surer. But I’m also sure you’d agree that the world itself won’t end. Just the way we’ve done stuff in the past. And change is supposed to be good for us no? LOL Heck I’ve got as many reasons as anyone to sit around crying in my pretzels… (and I did actually try that once but the pretzels got all soggy and kinda weird after that)… and when we run out of pretzels… what then? Change is weird. It feels a bit like the first aerobics class in over 20 years at first. Bend and snap… no no… make that bend and c-h-a-n-g-e. But what’s the alternative? More tissues… more pretzels? (((chuckles)))
And here I am preaching to the converted. AG you are already one of the most upbeat people I know! Do you keep pretzels on hand? For emergencies I mean? [You know I'm kidding]… and so pleased you stopped by to pep me up and say hello…
Thank you!
Hey, Jean, the comments section looks great, but when I write my comment the letters are very faint. I wonder if this is just on my ‘puter?
Regarding Van Gogh, I dunno, I still think there’s more to this story. I wonder if Gaugin really could have lopped off VG’s ear in a moment of rage. The accuracy would have been astonishing. We just have to stay tuned.
Yes John… I think they might be pulling our leg! grin.
I’ll look into the faint letters… I’ve got the same prob but it’s intermittent. Hope to have more features and better workability soon. Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated.
Jean, firstly and upmostly….. I love your new look! I can see a trim here and maybe some “highlights” added to the “style”, there.
You look fabulous!
On the subject of this blog..I totally and utterly agree with you (she says with a big smile on her face!!), the element of understanding should be included in the weather report. It would suggest that understanding others is just as important.
Hi Jools
Not sure if you mean me or the Blog… but either way “thanks” LOL The photoshoot was done in Cairns back in February and was a lot of fun to do! The blog has been revamped into a newer more modern format. Not all that many discernible changes on the outside… but functionally better in back of house. I’ll be adding a cartoon gallery… and dedicated gallery for paintings as well…. and a function for direct sales through PayPal. Hopefully soon.