Kate, I enjoyed this episode. Van Gogh is an artist whose work has always appealed to me. His work often appears simple at first glance, but each piece has depths to explore. Thanks for taking us through this work. The series on letter writing is exquisite. It is a lost art in society, and I am grateful you are highlighting it here.
Amazing! These letters are something else. I love the idea of the painting as text—or the text as contextuality about the painting. Funny, I started reading Vincent and Theo, a book by Deborah Heiligman. I must say, I knew very little about the early life of the artist, but it’s interesting to learn about his early development. Lots to say about that, but I’ll stop here.
Thank You, Kate for your awesome work!! I’ll chip in here and there, UP is so vast, though. BTW, I didn’t go into the field, but distributive justice and the souls of cities (identities, moods and psychological profiles which different neighborhoods represent) are things that stand out.—Yet actually, I’d love to ask you a question about—I’m been writing a story inspired by the Minotaur myth and want to ask if you about potential layers for such place as the maze. I know Borges and other writers (Calvino, Humberto Ecco, etc) talk about it, but I’ve made a couple attempts at settings that simply didn’t work.
Anyway, thanks again—and if it’s ok to reach out let me know.
Also, I finished your series—ALL the episodes—ahhh. There’s a lot of follow up homework for me to do, however. I’m especially interested in your desertation and the city as text. I studied urban planning and loved the way you weaved it into your narrative (ie., the apartment ellipsis).
Anyway, I can go on and on as each episode was rich in its own way…ok I’ll stop now—but thank you so, so much for these series!!
Armand, that's so wonderful that you've enjoyed the episodes! Yeah, I guess I tend to open up with questions and ideas for reading rather than delivering something more contained...that's the way I teach as well :)
Very cool about urban planning. Yes, it is still a big interest for me even as a fiction writer (my last two books about Hong Kong and Vienna - also places I've lived). Would love to hear more of your thoughts about this from your perspective along the way.
Thanks again for such a wonderful comment and really happy to have you here!
Oh very cool! I went to the museum of his work in Amsterdam a long time ago but have not been to a solo curated show that I can recall. I agree, there is so much going on in addition to the beautiful vibrancy of the colors an brushstrokes.
Great episode, Kate! I love this painting, I'd never seen it before, and I so appreciate the shift in perspective to another medium beyond/interwoven with writing. I wonder sometimes about "meaning" and symbolism in paintings - for some reason, I can't really see it on my own. Same with poetry - in a strange way my mind sort of goes blank; if someone points something out I "get" it, but I sometimes wonder if I have some kind of symbol blindness (like facial blindness?) But what I love about Van Gogh (and I'm very glad to know that somewhere an expert has given us permission to say Van go instead of Van *cough*🤣) is the marriage of simple images with the delicate play of colors, and I don't feel as though I necessarily need to look deeply into them to find meaning.
Thanks Troy! The painting was also new to me, fun to discover it.
Funny about symbol blindness! I guess it could also mean you're more focused on other things - the story as told, the aesthetics. Not sure. In any case, I guess with each medium you develop certain 'ways of reading'. My art history professors in college were incredible and I often forget how much I picked up from them. When I teach a graphic novel, though, I feel like I'm learning-as-teaching in terms of the 'ways to read the text'. So many possibilities out there and ways to tell our stories :)
Kate, I enjoyed this episode. Van Gogh is an artist whose work has always appealed to me. His work often appears simple at first glance, but each piece has depths to explore. Thanks for taking us through this work. The series on letter writing is exquisite. It is a lost art in society, and I am grateful you are highlighting it here.
Thanks so much, Matthew! I agree, there is so much in the layers when we look at Van Gogh and then the aesthetics alone fascinate me as well.
Amazing! These letters are something else. I love the idea of the painting as text—or the text as contextuality about the painting. Funny, I started reading Vincent and Theo, a book by Deborah Heiligman. I must say, I knew very little about the early life of the artist, but it’s interesting to learn about his early development. Lots to say about that, but I’ll stop here.
Anyway, thanks for this—and happy Holidays!
Thanks so much for the great comment. That sounds like an excellent book rec, Armand. I'll check it out!
Thank You, Kate for your awesome work!! I’ll chip in here and there, UP is so vast, though. BTW, I didn’t go into the field, but distributive justice and the souls of cities (identities, moods and psychological profiles which different neighborhoods represent) are things that stand out.—Yet actually, I’d love to ask you a question about—I’m been writing a story inspired by the Minotaur myth and want to ask if you about potential layers for such place as the maze. I know Borges and other writers (Calvino, Humberto Ecco, etc) talk about it, but I’ve made a couple attempts at settings that simply didn’t work.
Anyway, thanks again—and if it’s ok to reach out let me know.
Intriguing! Sure, send me a message, Armand.
Read it if you can, I highly recommend it!
Also, I finished your series—ALL the episodes—ahhh. There’s a lot of follow up homework for me to do, however. I’m especially interested in your desertation and the city as text. I studied urban planning and loved the way you weaved it into your narrative (ie., the apartment ellipsis).
Anyway, I can go on and on as each episode was rich in its own way…ok I’ll stop now—but thank you so, so much for these series!!
Armand, that's so wonderful that you've enjoyed the episodes! Yeah, I guess I tend to open up with questions and ideas for reading rather than delivering something more contained...that's the way I teach as well :)
Very cool about urban planning. Yes, it is still a big interest for me even as a fiction writer (my last two books about Hong Kong and Vienna - also places I've lived). Would love to hear more of your thoughts about this from your perspective along the way.
Thanks again for such a wonderful comment and really happy to have you here!
I think he signed the paintings "Vincent" because anyone who wasn't Dutch mispronounced his name. I believe it's all in the back of the throat 😊.
He's one of my all-time favourites. There's a lovely biography called A Love of Many Things by David Sweetman. Really interesting. Thanks, Kate.
Oh, I'll have to check out this biography! Thanks, Jules. That also makes a lot of sense with the signing.
Excellent listen, Kate. We went to a Van Gogh exhibit in Melbourne last year and I learnt some new things there, and some newer things here.
As Matthew says, there's a lot to extract from looking at Van Gogh's work.
Oh very cool! I went to the museum of his work in Amsterdam a long time ago but have not been to a solo curated show that I can recall. I agree, there is so much going on in addition to the beautiful vibrancy of the colors an brushstrokes.
Thanks Nathan!
Great episode, Kate! I love this painting, I'd never seen it before, and I so appreciate the shift in perspective to another medium beyond/interwoven with writing. I wonder sometimes about "meaning" and symbolism in paintings - for some reason, I can't really see it on my own. Same with poetry - in a strange way my mind sort of goes blank; if someone points something out I "get" it, but I sometimes wonder if I have some kind of symbol blindness (like facial blindness?) But what I love about Van Gogh (and I'm very glad to know that somewhere an expert has given us permission to say Van go instead of Van *cough*🤣) is the marriage of simple images with the delicate play of colors, and I don't feel as though I necessarily need to look deeply into them to find meaning.
Thanks Troy! The painting was also new to me, fun to discover it.
Funny about symbol blindness! I guess it could also mean you're more focused on other things - the story as told, the aesthetics. Not sure. In any case, I guess with each medium you develop certain 'ways of reading'. My art history professors in college were incredible and I often forget how much I picked up from them. When I teach a graphic novel, though, I feel like I'm learning-as-teaching in terms of the 'ways to read the text'. So many possibilities out there and ways to tell our stories :)
PS completely agree about Van GO!