Shared experiences in beauty and grief

 Last week, I went to the very fabulous Van Gogh Alive exhibition. If you haven't seen it, I hope that one day you get the opportunity to do so. I've seen Van Gogh paintings in museums around the world, including the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which has wall-to-wall originals of his various sunflower paintings. But this was something else. They take paintings, and parts of the paintings, and project them on screens to music. Some aspects are moving - clouds or trains or birds. When Starry Nights is shown, or a forest scene, you feel as if you are immersed in the forest.

Accompanying the beauty and anguish of the paintings are quotes from Van Gogh's writings and letters. He could paint, but wow, he could write too. I started photographing so many of the quotes, because they spoke to me, and because they seemed so appropriate to this blog. It was just a reminder of the experiences and thoughts and growth we share with others going through hard times, who feel isolated or "other" or misunderstood, who feel alone, sad and depressed. 

I'm just going to put up some of the quotes and paintings, and let you decide if they fit with your life or not.

In an artist's life,
death is perhaps not the most difficult thing.

I will not live without love.

I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic
than to love people.

The beginning is perhaps more difficult
than anything else, but keep heart,
it will turn out all right.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

Though I am often in the depths of misery,
there is still calmness, pure harmony,
and music inside me.

It is looking at things for a long time
that ripens you and gives you a
deeper meaning.