My brain has been a blizzard for a year. The debris is only now just settling down. I need to sleep a lot these days — I suppose to compensate for all the sleeping I didn’t do this summer. I digest my memories. The dream came to its natural end, but I was and still am awake. Vincent lingers like a scent.

It’s been a month since the only Van Gogh painting on public display in all of the continent of Africa (something that has been quite clear to me ever since making my map of the locations of Vincent’s paintings) was stolen.

It was cut out of its frame and I imagine tucked under someone’s coat  - maybe one half of the “italian couple” from whom they claimed to have recovered the painting at the Cario International Airport, and then said they were mistaken - or perhaps it was Carmen Sandiego in her red coat (oh, I always wanted to grow up to be exactly like her)!

Thanks to artobserved.com

Amazingly, this is the second time this very painting was stolen from this museum, which brought to light how lax the Cairo security has been in its museums for some time. The people in charge in Cairo said they would amend such problems as only 7 of 43 security cameras actually functioned.

I smiled when reading all this, and decided to wait a month before I moved the sticker or wrote anything. I smiled because this is so Van Gogh. Needless to say, the 296 colored spot that marks this painting will have to be moved from Cairo and placed under “Whereabouts Unknown”.  The last time the painting was stolen, it took ten years to recover. Any bets for this time? Ah, we’ll see. At least it’s one of his lesser paintings.

Would you steal a Van Gogh painting?

As long as I knew I wouldn’t be caught, I totally would! I wouldn’t keep it forever, but… even just one year with one of Vincent’s paintings in my home would be an experience I would never, ever forget. And I think the world could wait a year.

In the meantime, I wanted to bring your attention to some of the more innovative Van Gogh developments I’ve encountered.

I’ve had at least three different people forward me this link to tilt-perspective interpretations of Vincent’s paintings. Here’s an example:

Thanks to artcyclopedia.com

So immersive! Click on the link above to see more, they are pretty awesome.

And also, look at this incredibly creative and thoughtful animated video showing time passing in Vincent’s Bedroom — using bits and pieces from his other paintings (Starry Night in the window, a self-portrait in the mirror).

Lastly, the Vincent necklace I’ve been wearing for nearly two years has broken three times in one month. I have to get a new chain now. At first, all this made me feel a bit uneasy. Am I holding onto something that needs to be let go? Am I forcing something? Does Vincent want to get away?

The reality is that this is at least partly due to my wearing one necklace non-stop for over a year, but (and I only figured this out just now) also because it’s time for renewal. We are moving now from play to book. Time to get a new chain.

Oh, and did I mention the painting clips inside got water damaged mysteriously during the run of the show?

I don’t know when it happened. But it makes them look old. I like that.

Church at Auvers, 1890.

Mademoiselle Gachet in the Garden, 1890.

Tree trunks in the grass, 1890.

Vincent’s time in Auvers-sur-Oise was a period of most passionate productivity, it is one of the most incredible outpourings of all Art History. Were you trying to cure yourself with painting, Vincent, which you said calmed your mind? Or were you trying to prove something before you finally gave up on this world? I’m not sure I’ll ever have a satisfactory answer…

What I do know is that I unwittingly share this time with you. I am about to embark on a period of intense productivity myself – teaching theater to children all day and rehearsing at night – understanding my craft from every possible angle and, I’m sure, learning many new things. My choreographer said to me the other day, “so the whole play is like one big crescendo, right?” I agreed heartily with her. It is also what the making of this play will be from now until opening night.

Unwittingly, I arranged my rehearsal period to begin and end within the same dates as your seventy days. Your first letter from Auvers is dated May 20th, my first rehearsal, 120 years later, was May 22nd. And opening night is the anniversary of your death, when your soul finally left its body…

But my, how you linger in so many other forms. I never can get over how you keep popping up everywhere.

All my love to you today, readers. May you feel as cosmically entwined as I do, for as Vincent wrote July 10, 1888:

That rakes up the eternal question: is life visible to us in its entirety, or before we die do we know of only one hemisphere?

Painters — to speak only of them — being dead and buried, speak to a following generation or to several following generations through their works. Is that all, or is there more, even? In the life of the painter, death may perhaps not be the most difficult thing.

There are two little things I wanted to share today. One is that a painting by Vincent had a surprise unveiling in Minnesota yesterday — the public was not told what new painting the Marine Art Museum had acquired, only that the artist would “rival Monet and Renoir.” (that’s my boy!)

Below is a quote that warmed my heart, clicking on it will take you to the article (thank you Winona Daily News):

Attendees swarmed around the paintings, a deep crowd quickly forming around the Van Gogh. Nearby, Swanson smiled at the thought of how the museum’s newest jewel will draw art lovers from Winona and beyond. The public will have its first chance to see the work when the museum opens at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

“Not only do we have four outstanding paintings, and the fifth is by Vincent Van Gogh,” he said. “I mean, come on, guys.”

So if you live in or near Minnesota, take a look! It’s from 1882, which makes it one of the earliest paintings of his on public display (at least that I’ve seen). Vincent did not even begin drawing seriously until 1880.

Thanks to winonadailynews.com

Lastly, I had an interesting idea the other night. I was about to reply to Vincent’s daily quote on twitter from my personal account, then imagined him responding back to me, my responding back to him, and so on. I ended up writing a dialogue, and instead of doing it on the fly, I thought I’d allow those interested to have a say in when it is “performed.”

For those who are not aware, I post daily quotes from Vincent’s letters on twitter at www.twitter.com/Vincent_Says, matching the date as closely as possible. You can look at them without being on twitter, but it’s easier to be updated if you are. Vincent_Says always responds to those who direct their tweets at him, and so it occurred to me that if I said something, he would say something. My tweets can be found at www.twitter.com/artesoy. The dialogue will be posted publicly on these two pages, and anyone will be able to follow along.

So the long and short of this all is… There will be a twitter scene between Vincent and I. This dialogue will not be in the play; it has been exclusively created for this event. So here’s the big question.

In the past, my conversations with Vincent have been mostly on Facebook, and have gone like this (and often included others)!

If you are on twitter, and want in on the conversation, you’ll only have to tweet @Vincent_Says or @artesoy and you will be.

While looking for the conversation above, I ran into the following, which I posted shortly before my incredible trip of YellowEurope…

Have a wonderful weekend, and please vote if you are interested! I will announce the performance time here on Wednesday morning.

[update: the wednesday option was changed from the 14th to the 21st to allow more time for voting...]