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"Van Gogh and Me",,"Last November my grandmother was visiting and wanted to do something fun. Instead of fun, my mother dragged us to the traveling “Beyond Van Gogh” exhibit that was in Salt Lake City at the time. As we entered this big warehouse where the exhibit was located, my fears seemed to be confirmed. I walked along a winding path with backlit, large-canvas reproductions of Van Gogh’s paintings with excerpts of letters written between Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo written over top of the paintings. For me, because I have a visual field cut and other sensory processing issues, it was painful and overwhelming to look at. The backlighting of the artwork made every detail pop and screamed for my attention. So everything smeared together and my brain could not process anything. I did everything I could to avert my eyes as I felt myself slowly becoming overwhelmed and on the verge of melting down.
I did notice that not everything in this room was yelling at me. In between these paintings, there were various empty picture frames invisibly suspended from the ceiling. As people, including myself, walked by, we all became the subjects. I became part of the artwork for a fleeting moment as I was framed within the borders. Then, once I turned the last corner, I entered a dark room with projections of moving color on the wall and floor. I went from being the one who moved around stationary pieces of art into a stationary person watching as the brushstrokes of color and light moved around me and swallowed me whole. As my mind and senses adjusted to this new reality, I entered a huge warehouse-sized room, projections of Van Gogh's work enveloped me on all sides. I was completely immersed in all the colors and details. Music written about Van Gogh or his works was gently playing in the background. For me, it was like a reverse fishbowl effect. Instead of feeling alone and exposed while something stared at me, I was a natural being that was happily swimming amidst the wonder around me. As I watched colors and paint strokes slowly morphing one painting turned into another, for the first time, art moved me in ways I never experienced before. By magnifying details that I would never normally see, I finally understood why art is so powerful. I watched his artistic process from start to finish as sketches were recreated and deconstructed before my eyes. I did not know about his work as a portrait painter, but seeing his side-by-side gallery of his many subjects, including himself, showed such an incredible imagination. This was the first time that I felt art really move me. Van Gogh’s artwork is so powerful and now I understand why his work lives on today. Visiting the “Beyond Van Gogh” exhibit has made me rethink what is possible. Please do not tell my mom that she was right and that I had so much more than fun.
Works Cited: “The Immersive Experience .” Beyond Van Gogh Salt Lake City, 2 Dec. 2021, vangoghsaltlake.com/.",,"""Beyond Van Gogh"" traveling art exhibit",,"November 2021","Julia Reardon, Mountain Heights Academy, Utah",,,,,,van-gogh-and-me,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Aesthetics,Art,Art Exhibitions,Cultural Awareness,Emotional Experience,Family,Museum,Painters,Paintings,van Gogh, Vincent",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/543/Van_Gogh_HM.jpg,,,1,1
"The Original Starry Night",,"""Starlight Over the Rhone"" is a precursor to the much more famous ""Starry, Starry Night"" by Vincent van Gogh. It features a boundless black sky that merges into the murky waters of the Rhone below. Stars shine brightly above and are reflected in the river.
The sky, of course, is the most impressive piece of the work, but what I love most about this piece, is the couple walking along the river. The two appear in the bottom right of the painting, and are dwarfed by the landscape. Their faces are indecipherable, and they drift through the space. I think about them often, mostly I think about the idea of relationships and humanity. There are two people, together, compact, wandering, amidst this vast emptiness. They are together.
We don't know who they are, but their comfort is palpable. It almost doesn't matter who they were, it is simply the idea they present: an idea of comfort, of belonging, of compassion, of love that exists amongst all the black. I look at this painting whenever I feel sad, and think about all the love in the world. I think about how in a universe full of emptiness, of vastness, we still have each other here.","Vincent Van Gogh","Van Gogh's painting ""Starlight Over the Rhone""",,"2011 ","Katie Ligmond, 27, Ph.D. Candidate in Visual Studies",,,,,,original-starry-night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,NHC,"Art,Art History,Humanity,van Gogh, Vincent",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/18/460/HM_Musee_Image.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2021",1,0
"The Brightest Star in the Night",,"My humanities moment took place over a few years. It all started one day when I was in the 4th grade. This was one of my favorite days in elementary school because we had an assembly that day. That meant that after lunch recess we got to do something fun instead of doing math or history or science or something else that was uncolorful and boring. I was really excited to find out that it was an art assemble, which meant that afterwards we would get to paint or draw for the rest of the day. Taped all over the walls of our gym were many colorful, bright, and interesting paintings. When we were all seated on the floor I was able to get a better view of the paintings on my side of the wall. It was very interesting to look back and forth between the different sides of the gym. On the far side the paintings looked just like standard paintings but on the side near to me I could see all the little details.
The art teacher went on to explain why the paintings looked different from a distance. These were some of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings and that he used a very unique style and technique. She explained that he is best known for his use of pointillism. This means that he painted using thousands of dots or strokes to create a very detailed and bright picture. My favorite picture that she showed us was of a little town at night. It had blue rolling hills and a swirly starry sky.
After learning about his style and looking at more of his paintings we went back to our class and got to try out painting like him. I had so much fun learning about and painting in Van Gogh’s unique style. It was by far my most favorite assembly. In middle school I kept seeing the painting with the swirly night sky and so I decided to look more into Vincent van Gogh’s life. He was born on March 30, 1853 in Zundert, Netherlands to Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Carbentus. Van Gogh was introduced to art very early in life when he worked with his uncle as an art dealer. During his early adulthood he had trouble figuring out his purpose in life. He worked many jobs trying to figure this out; he worked as an art dealer, a bookseller, and even became a preacher at one point. On his preaching mission in Borinage, Belgium, a mining region, he would give Bible readings to the locals. While this was all happening he would write to his brother, Theo, about his journeys. In these letters he would draw little sketches and drawings of what he saw. Which caused Theo to advise him to pursue his passion for art. Van Gogh agreed and soon got art lessons from Anton Mauve. Since Van Gogh didn't have a paying job anymore, Theo would send him money. Later in his painting career, as compensation for Theo taking care of him, he would give Theo some of his paintings to sell. Vincent van Gogh’s mental health fluctuate all throughout his life. He began a relationship with a former prostitute Sien Hoornik. Together they rented a studio where they lived along with her baby and five year old daughter. The relationship broke off and Van Gogh moved to Arles, Paris to focus on his art. There he rented one of his rooms to fellow artist Paul Gauguin. Paul and him had very different art styles and would often get into heated arguments with one another. This along with the stress of his painting career being unsuccessful caused his mental health to deteriorate. At its worst, he cut off his ear then gave it to a prostitute wrapped in a newspaper. After his recovery in the hospital he went back home to paint. Then feeling his mental health declining again he admitted himself to the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. While there he experienced a period of extreme confusion and ate oil paint. It was at this asylum that Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night, the swirly painting that I had liked so much. With everything becoming too much, on July 27, 1890 Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. He was able to walk back to his house and was found, but it was to late for him. Vincent van Gogh died on July 29, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. Over his lifetime he drew over 850 paintings and about 1,300 works on paper.
Sadly, it was only after his death that his paintings found any success and popularity. This has influenced me personally because it taught me to not take everything at face value. You might not know what is going on underneath the surface. With Van Gogh his paintings seemed so happy and playful but behind that he was struggling financially and with his mental health. It taught me to be aware of those around me and to remind myself that not everything is pretty. After learning more about Vincent van Gogh’s life and his struggles it made the painting have a deeper meaning. It was both sad and beautiful to learn about the man behind the paintings. I learned that even in the worst situations people can create eternal beauty.",,"The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh",,2010/2011,"Sydnie, 18, Student",,,,,,the-brightest-star-in-the-night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,School,"Art,Beauty,Inspiration,Painters,Paintings,Pointillism,Salt Lake City, Utah,Students,Teachers & Teaching,The Starry Night,van Gogh, Vincent",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/282/4912901360_c4971a58e6_o.jpg,Text,,1,0
"“I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to a van Gogh exhibition”","I get chills thinking about it even now, because to have this extraordinary storyteller explaining to you what was going on at that point in van Gogh’s life—what this meant to him, what it should mean to us—but still leaving the whole painting open to individual interpretation, it was really something that, to me, was quite profound.","In what I believe was the latter part of the 1980s, I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to a van Gogh exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. And for the first time in my life, I wore one of those machines around my neck, where you listen to headphones and you hear somebody describe what it is you’re going to see. It was a brand-new experience.
The narrator was the then-director of the Metropolitan Museum, Philippe de Montebello, and at the introductory part of the exhibit, I was really struck by the quality of what he was saying. It was so well written that it really bordered on being fine literature.... As we went from room to room, his storytelling, and the visual impact of my seeing these extraordinary paintings by this extraordinary, troubled person, made an impact on me that I still think about, probably, every month.
There was a new richness in what I saw, but also a level of insight into what van Gogh had done that magnified to a great degree the impact that it had on me. Looking back on it, coming at a part of my life where I had been underground for a long time, as a law student, and then as a young lawyer, it pulled me back into the knowledge that there was this greater, more interesting world out there; one to which I owed a lot more attention. From then on, I dedicated myself to making sure that I was going to live a life that was more rich.
I get chills thinking about it even now, because to have this extraordinary storyteller explaining to you what was going on at that point in van Gogh’s life—what this meant to him, what it should mean to us—but still leaving the whole painting open to individual interpretation, it was really something that, to me, was quite profound.","Vincent van Gogh","An exhibit of Vincent van Gogh's paintings ",,,"C. Allen Parker, General Counsel, Wells Fargo & Company",,,,,,allen-parker-van-gogh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Art,Art Exhibitions,Art Museums,Business Leaders,de Montebello, Philippe,Metropolitan Museum of Art,Museum Curatorship,New York, New York,Paintings,Post-Impressionism (Art),Storytelling,van Gogh, Vincent",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/21/Wheatfield_with_Crows.Vincent_Van_Gogh.jpg,"Moving Image",,1,0