How do we see in the plain?

"When a rough man bears blossoms like a flowering plant, yes, it is beautiful to see; but before that time he has had to stand a great deal of winter cold, more than those who later sympathize with him know. The artist's life, and what an artist is, it is all very curious - how deep it is - how infinitely deep."

Vincent van Gogh

I finally finished The Shoes of Van Gogh by Cliff Edwards. It was excellent. The last several pages seemed to be the best. I learned a lot of about Van Gogh's life and how truly serene and beautiful his heart was. I identified with so much of what Van Gogh sought to portray in his art. He was immensely interested in the details and of plain and simple things in life. Through his letters to his brother, Theo, he described this beautifully.

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His father once disapproved of him taking in a prostitute and her child. Van Gogh wrote about it in a letter:

"I for my part understand Jesus' words when He said to the superficially civilized, the respectable people of His time, "The harlots will go into the Kingdom of God before you."

On creation of life and art:

"Last year I read in some book or other that writing a book or painting a picture was like having a child. This I will not accept as applicable to me - I have always thought that that the latter was the more natural and the best - so I say, only if it were so, only if it were the same."

On the present day:

"I myself am always glad that I have read the Bible more thoroughly than many people nowadays, because it eases my mind somewhat to know that there were once such lofty ideas. But because of that very fact that I think the old things so beautiful, I must think the new things all the more beautiful. All the more, seeing that we can act in our own time, and the past as well as the future concern us only indirectly."

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Van Gogh was influenced and greatly impressed by Walt Whitman.

"I round and finish little, if anything.... The reader will always have his or her part to do, just as much as I have mine. I seek less to state or display any theme or thought, and more to bring you, reader, into the atmosphere of the theme or thought - there to pursue our own flight."

Walt Whitman

Here is some of the work I did in the spring. I identify with what Whitman said and I have grown very close to the words of Van Gogh. As an artist and painter it is easy to have so many ideas about what to do. I once expressed to my professor that I was afraid of what to do. I had too many ideas and knew there was only one project to finish. She looked at me with a grin and said, "That is not a problem!"

But is it?

All writers and artists struggle with the handling and juggling of too many options and ideas. There is a whole world of options awaiting the inspired artist!

But as this can be so wonderful for the dreamer and creator I still believe nothing can be made true or whole on a palette spread too thin.

A person needs time to be simple. Time to not be distracted. Time to be vulnerable. Time to be serene. Time to be engulfed in serenity. Time to be still. To be quiet.

There is a song by Don Chaffer and Derek Webb that starts with, "Why am I so overwrought?"

Overwrought, when of a writing or work of art, is to be too elaborate or complicated in design or construction.

I feel it is necessary to remove and set aside these ideas that are overwrought. I believe simplicity creates a sensitivity that, in quietness and stillness, generates vulnerability.

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And so Emily Dickenson once wrote:

By homely gifts and hindered words

The human heart is told

Of nothing --

"Nothing" is the force

That renovates the World --

And as Jean-Francois Millet said:

"..I find infinite glories... I see the halos of dandelions, and the sun... But I see as well, in the plain, the steaming horses at work, and in a rocky place a man, all worn out."

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How do we see in the plain?

"humility becomes me"

said Vincent van Gogh