When I first walked into my new apartment this past February, I saw the corner where I wanted to write my book, Vincent’s Yellow. I couldn’t help but picture the beautiful antique writing desk my boyfriend gave me for Christmas, nestled in a corner between windows. The room is big enough that I can do yoga on hardwood floors with trees all around me — being a third floor apartment, the view out the windows was full of naked tree branches in February. I dreamt of writing surrounded by green shimmering light.

Sounds pretty good, right? So we were supposed to be “just looking” but we couldn’t stop thinking about that space. Securing it filled us with an incredible enthusiasm.

I wanted to paint the walls (my first time!), and yellow was a natural choice. Purple, its complementary color, immediately came into my mind. After consulting at a paint store, I decided most all of the apartment would be different shades of the two colors. But the sun room, functioning as both living room and my office, needed the strongest hues. Vincent’s colors.

The Sunflower/Stars art piece had to go in the sun room (stars in the sun room, since they are the same), as did everything I needed for my book — my research, my map of the Current Locations of Van Gogh’s Paintings, my instruments, my painting — and quickly this room began to feel like a temple.

Vincent’s chair from the show became mine to make art in.

And from this spot, I can see the birds in the trees so clearly.

The first phase of work on my book is to gather the materials. Since the book will take scrapbook form, I have been scanning all my journal entries that mention Vincent. I am just finishing this today.

The earliest piece of writing I have about Vincent turns out to be a poem I wrote when I was eleven, in response to one of his paintings (now a favorite of mine). I now share it with you, reader… I hope you enjoy.

This is the first taste of the book to be shared! Exciting!

Marguerite Gachet in the garden, 1890

If you have trouble reading the following, click on the image below until eventually you’ll be able to zoom. Also, enjoy my poetry teacher’s commentary if that appeals to you. :)

I find it interesting that I put myself inside Vincent’s paintings in my first, eleven-year old encounter. I felt like Marguerite, exploring his garden. I still do.

In my research, I’ve found that entering the painting is a familiar desire for many Van Gogh fans. It is a fantasy best exemplified by Kurosawa in a segment of  his film Dreams. If you haven’t seen it, watch it when you have ten minutes to spare. It’s exquisite!

Until next time, dear reader… I’ll be posting monthly from now on!

~~~~~~VAN GOGH POPCORN~~~~~~

Loopy Dave’s Mind-Blowing Illustrations

Japan uses sunflowers to decontaminate radioactive soil

Okay, it’s not really Van Gogh related, but this article gave me fantasies of sunflowers as far as the eye can see… Also, sunflowers heal the soil? Of course! And let’s not forget that Japan and Vincent are kind of obsessed with each other… It makes me smile, anyway. I think Vincent is smiling too.

Bacon Starry Night

Yes, it’s true. The website even teaches you how to do it yourself.

I think some people have a sickness called Bacon.

On the other end of the cultural spectrum, there’s also apparently a Van Gogh Opera that went up this year in Indiana…!

Starry Night Nail Art

Another amazing DIY that I’m much more tempted to try… click for the instructional video!

Quilled Starry Night

To finish this entry off, an incredible work of art!

Great work Suzy! It’s beautiful! Painting with paper…

Many thanks to Canan, Jeremy, Ivan and others for the links!

]]> http://www.vincentsyellow.com/2011/08/25/a-temple-for-writing/feed/ 1 http://www.vincentsyellow.com/2010/12/21/van-goghs-christmas-popcorn/ http://www.vincentsyellow.com/2010/12/21/van-goghs-christmas-popcorn/#comments Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:22:57 +0000 Teresa http://www.vincentsyellow.com/?p=900 First, a friend sent me a link to this image, and I still cannot figure out who made it. (thanks Rischwa!)

thanks to nicefunpics.blogspot.com

INCREDIBLE. Please click on it to look at it full size. The use of clothes pins is ingenious, and I spy a pair of slippers, a two-headed lamp, and an electric keyboard. Do you?

Well, on the search for the artist who made the above art piece (which, if you know who it is, please tell me!) I encountered several other incredible things.

So incredible, I’m making one entry just for all these amazing permutations of Vincent van Gogh. It felt like a little Christmas present to me, so here are my Christmas presents to you.

A Mural of a Self-Portrait by Vincent van Gogh, made with plastic bottle lids, in West Virginia

thanks to putalidonitproject.wordpress.com

A São Paulo sidewalk turned into a Van Gogh Self-Portrait (with ear)

thanks to artandmusic.wordpress.com

A spooky portrait of the artist by Hyung Koo Kang:

thanks to mocoloco.com

A silly portrait of a Simpsonized Van Gogh:

thanks to artistsblog.artistsnetwork.com

A three-inch tall Van Gogh doll, for your pocket (and others!):

thanks to theworldsbestever.com

A Second Life apparition of Vincent van Gogh (I still can’t figure out what this screenshot is of, exactly, but it was taken by Tao Takashi):

thanks to nwn.blogs.com, and Tao Takashi

A Van Gogh Butterfly made of four palettes, a paintbrush and possibly ribbon:

thanks to mnartists.org

And last but definitely not least, the Van Gogh Hot Air Balloon!!!

thanks to spiritsdancing.com

And look at it deflate: his eyes gazing upon us as though he were a giant sleeping… How apropos.

thanks to spiritsdancing.com

Click here to see this photo full-size. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed your popcorn, and I very much hope you enjoy your Holidays!

It started with a desire for fabric to fall, and for it to give me yellow silhouettes. It was sparked by ideas of creation and procreation. This set piece had to contain the time I thought maybe I met Vincent, that maybe he was with me. That moment of perfect union of course changed everything – in my play, a new character was created. She was born, she was my imagination, and she parted with known facts and I knew that. But she allowed me to imagine his smile.

Now staging this (pro)creation is tricky. In my head it necessitated a yellow tent that would allow me to cast silhouettes, that would then transform into a canopy that revealed the true action – that I was not kissing Vincent at all, it was my imaginary him.

I wanted silhouettes from inside a tent-like structure, then the fabric was to be raised into a canopy position. Inside the tent had to be enough room to dance. That my original plans looked at all like a flower truly did not dawn on me. All I knew was that I wanted the space itself to blossom into impressionism and color as Vincent did about half-way through his career. From colorless to colorful.

I also wanted christmas lights as stars towards the end of the play. What ended up occurring (design and construction developed by myself as well as Shannon O’Neil, Timothy Caldwell & Amy Buckler) was something truly marvelous that is now a piece of art in my apartment.

The center circle of midnight blue speckled with christmas lights is six feet in diameter, with four long yellow chiffon petals at about ten feet. For most of the play, the lights were not on, and a yellow sunflower layer with smaller petals covered the night stars from view.

For months my boyfriend and I have been plotting how we can pack it up, but we’ve never desired to pack it up, and now when we finally move out of the space in three weeks, we are going to bring the sunflower to hang it up in our new apartment. It is simply too beautiful and awesome to put in storage.

Photography by Timothy Caldwell

I never dreamt that I would be left with such an incredible art piece to live with forever, that I might always be able to see stars in my apartment, no matter the weather. In my apartment we often shout — let’s turn on the stars! It’s awfully fun to say.

I realize now that it is the gift that Vincent gave back to me. I gave him a play, my heart, and my life for a few years… and he gave me stars forever.

Photography by Timothy Caldwell