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!
The first time my golden starry book locket broke was when I was traveling in Europe, just upon arriving in Paris. I had just been talking for an hour with a stranger with whom later I would regret sharing time. In retrospect, I think it was an omen.
As I leaned down to pick up my backpack in that fateful moment, the long chain looped around an armrest and when I stood up — crack — it fell lifeless into my hand, nearby a ziperred pocket with its name on it. Because I was in a rush to get off the train, and because there was really nothing else to do, I slid the broken necklace into that pocket and never uttered a word. A small gasp escaped my lips, but the broken talisman was carried silently in my heart for the rest of that day… as though I didn’t want to admit it happened. Looking at it that night in the hostel, it was only the clasp that broke, which was easily fixed with tweezers. Sigh of relief. That was August 2009, the month of YellowEurope, also the month I decided to start wearing the locket every day, even to sleep. Sometimes I awoke wearing its imprint.
wearing the necklace in Amsterdam, photography by Timothy Caldwell
The next time was August 2010, during the run of the show. The next three times, actually. First, the clasp broke again, but this time for good. I bought a new clasp two weeks later, which then broke after a few days. A third clasp was bought, and then the chain itself broke. I knew then that I had to buy a new chain. But how? What kind? Where?
I started looking for the locket in the first place on an enormous hunch, not really knowing what I wanted or what I would put in it. I just kept looking until I found the right one in a tiny second-hand store in the East Village in New York City. Actually, my friend discovered it.
So shopping for a new chain was bizarre. Again, I didn’t know what I wanted. It so happened that I had a trip planned to New York City in October for other reasons, and decided to go to that store again, with the same friend. As destiny would have it, I found the perfect chain again – though it’s different. Incredibly, the name of that store is “A Repeat Performance.” I never noticed it’s name before.
thanks to maps.google.com
I told the woman that I had returned nearly two years later to find a new chain, and showed her the locket I had been carrying around in my purse for over a month. She smiled and said “Oh yes, I remember that piece.”
I think it would be difficult to forget. Now I’m wearing the new one all the time. It tends to twist like a ribbon, and needs untwisting. I don’t mind at all. It feels good to have Vincent’s colors back around my neck.
photography by Timothy Caldwell
~
Haven’t started on the book yet. Will soon. It’ll be more a labor of organization, editing, and choreography than writing. But I’m excited. I even set myself a schedule. Wednesday & Thursday mornings, and Sunday day, all for Vincent.
Now I’ve just gotta start printing and buy some two-sided tape. (Vincent’s Yellow in paper form is a kind of scrapbook/travelogue)
Dear Reader,
I have felt many things over the past few weeks, and it’s made it difficult to clear my head enough to speak clearly here. I regret if my straying has made your curiosity wane (almost a rhyme there), it was not intentional. The other problem has been that my mother and I were commissioned to write a new project – a musical telling the history of flamenco – and not only was I not ready to start a new project, I never finished digesting the end of this one.
photography by Shannon O'Neil
To do Vincent’s Yellow, to offer up such intimate, deep matters for the eyes of all, one must create a wound. After exposing myself like this over and over, my desire is usually to heal, to curl up and – in brief – not to be on display anymore. For the sake of posting on this website, that side effect of performance was not helpful.
I also was distracted by the attention: negative attention that made me question the quality of my work (and my self-image as artist), positive attention that encouraged an encore – to tour, to restage, to re-do. But after much thought, I see I am not ready for this. In fact, I don’t truly *desire* to perform Vincent’s Yellow in the near future. I have been encouraged by many to do so, I have been offered opportunities that make me feel like a fool for rejecting. But my spirit calls – like a distant siren – for my book. I have the building blocks for it strewn all around me. It was always my plan to mount the play, then write the book.
I know I will perform Vincent’s Yellow again. And it will be even better then, more complete after my full journey.
photography by Shannon O'Neil
The truth is, I was always closest to him on the page…
Vincent has not left my side. He encourages me onward, reminds me to listen to my heart, he remains my mentor. He continues to whisper great wisdom all the time through the quotes from his letters I continue to post on facebook and twitter, whenever I can remember… On my desk now, in front of my keyboard lays a note card with words of his I am considering painting large, on my wall:
The weathercocks don’t make the wind east or north, any more than opinions make the truth true.
–Vincent 4 January 1884
I know, deep down, my show was more ritual than story. It showed, to a degree, what all this has been for me, but not all that will be in the book. The book will be more. The book will be travelogue, scrapbook, journal, letter… The book will be all.
I want you to know, Reader, that I have already chosen how I will mark the moment when I am finally done creating at the feet of Vincent van Gogh. I will get a tattoo of his work, a drawing of his cypresses (the painting that I have undoubtedly spent the most time staring at, sighing in front of).
thanks to vangoghletters.org
The tree will begin at my right heel, and swirl up the back of my calf. His signature will be put, simply, along the outside edge of my foot. It will be him with me always, it will be tying my bones to nature (the nature he taught me to recognize that I’ve always seen), and it will make me a tree walking. I do this for him, for me, and because my plan is to grow ever higher, to reach my roots down ever deeper, and to blossom for decades.
That is what Vincent taught me to do.
I thank you deeply for reading, and I promise there’s more to come very soon.
[production photos from Vincent’s Yellow, as seen above, are available for viewing in the new Production Photos gallery!]
~
Van Gogh’s Popcorn (aka social riffing on VG — a new section!)
Elizabeth Taylor gets to keep her Van Gogh painting despite a controversy over its Nazi confiscation
thanks to dailymail.co.uk
A Starry Night Themed Wedding (an idea brought to my attention by Michelle‘s comment on the last post, thank you!)
thanks to junebugweddings.com
A Starry Night Hall
thanks to http://community.apartmenttherapy.com
In case you wonder why I care about these things, I see them as proof of the reach of Vincent’s influence. I know he would be confused and astonished by them… These events and images remind me of the power one artist can have, if she or he works honestly and beautifully enough.
Tags: absence, art, beauty, book, distraction, end, healing, inspiration, life, nature, performance, ritual, theater, trees, writing