Vincent (2024)
See full artwork here: Vincent. Pencil, 2024.
I remember the first time I ever saw one of Van Gogh’s paintings. It was at art camp and I was probably around 8 years old. The teacher had passed around copies of famous paintings, and I ended up with one of Van Gogh’s famous Sunflowers.
I was struck by the shades of yellow and green, the jubilant flowers, and the oddly endearing signature along the belly of the vase (“Vincent”). I copied it enthusiastically.
Van Gogh’s paintings are colorful and vibrant, and no matter if he painted flowers, landscapes, portraits, or cafes (see Café Terrace at Night, below), they are approachable to one and all (including 8-year old me).
But his works have emotional depth too, and this is something I’ve grown to appreciate immensely in the many years since that art camp.
Van Gogh didn’t just paint what he saw, but also what he felt. Each painting is a glimpse into his inner state at the time that he painted it, a window into his soul (see The Night Café, below).
Brilliant colors and impasto brushstrokes convey the happiness he felt when admiring sunflowers in a vase or when he saw clouds swirling over a wheat field (see Wheat Field with Cypresses, below).
Some of his paintings are whimsical (see Portrait of Joseph Roulin, above); others, like his Starry Night Over the Rhône (below), are tranquil and wondrous. He had a deep capacity to appreciate the beauty in the everyday.
Yet, beneath it all is (I believe) a feeling of melancholy. Van Gogh was mentally unwell and deeply lonely, and he ultimately died at age 37 (widely believed to be by suicide). I sense his pain in his art. Someone who would fill so many hearts with joy, carried immeasurable despair inside of his own. Tupac Shakur alluded to this in a poem that he dedicated to Van Gogh, called Starry Night:
A creative heart, obsessed with satisfying
this dormant and uncaring society
you have given them the stars at night
and u have given them
Bountiful Bouquets of Sunflowers
but 4 u there is only contempt
and though u pour yourself into that frame
and present it so proudly this world
could not accept your masterpieces
from the heart.
So on that starry night u gave 2 us
and u took away from us
the one thing we never acknowledged
your life.
I wanted to acknowledge Vincent. So, I made this drawing:
