Search Results for “van gogh”

Self-optimization through art

November 28th, 2021

We are worth knowing, far more than what we give ourselves credit for.

Rational assessment may say otherwise. But to believe that our work matters less than what’s deemed socially valuable or popular is insanity.

We have to practice empathic firmness toward making our art. Only a few become naked and famous. After all, Van Gogh sold one painting during his lifetime —to his brother!

Inevitably, what seems interesting to us is what informs and propels the craft—being creative means finding comfort in our weird selves. Productivity offers a type of reflective and hypnotic self-talk.

It takes considerable effort and confidence to maintain mere autonomy. The restorative power of seeking significance through the canvass is a self-optimization strategy in its own right.
Hokusai’s great wave: a lesson in persistence

April 29th, 2019

Can we improve our craft over time?

The Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) seemed to think so.

“Until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive.”

He only lived until 89, but he proved his theory of incremental improvement. He finished his most famous work, The Great Wave, at the age of 71. Van Gogh, an artist that only sold one painting during his lifetime–to this brother– remarked: “These waves are claws, the boat is caught in them, you can feel it.”

Hokusai’s other works also revolve around Mount Fuji in series that became to be called Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

Story short: age is but a number.

Life is about continuity. You may have more energy to practice when you’re younger, but the only difference between you and others will be how long you’re willing to stick with it. Hokusai played the long-game, acting like a professional with pertinacity.

You can check out the Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave exhibit at the British Museum, London, until August 13th.
Creativity lies within

August 21st, 2020

The quest of creativity is really the search for aliveness.

It is no wonder that when we spend the time to make and ship our craft, we are happier human beings.

To see and have any product resonate is icing on the cake. Few artists ever achieve wide acclaim for their work, even fewer prosper.

There’s no guarantee that the so-called “professional” writer or photographer achieves monetary success. Money is no arbiter, as Van Gogh can attest — he only sold one painting while he was alive and it was to his brother.

When we begin with the intention to please or entertain others, it’s no wonder the muse gives up on us. She demands honest work.

Creativity can be selfish act. We make what we want to see in the world, even if we don’t believe in the project at hand. It is within the practicing of creating, the maker basks in raw aliveness.

Originality is the pusher.
Unoriginal and creative

December 26th, 2019

We build careers off of clever hybrids, sampling the treasure trove of the Internet’s archival content to remix and recast as our own.

With a quick copy-paste, anyone with the tools can replicate a beautiful photo, record a song, or publish a book on Amazon.

Originality is dead. But that’s not to say it ever existed in the first place. Every piece of art, music, and writing we swallow was based on something before it. We continue the fad, bending genres and jamming stems into each other to create something novel.

Even the great Vincent Van Gogh adopted the style of Japanese prints and incorporated them into his work.

When we have access to slices of culture, the world (thanks to the internet) becomes our oyster.
Van Gogh’s fascination with Japan

April 14th, 2018

Japanese art flooded Western Europe when in 1854, America forced Japan to open its borders to trade.

Some of the prints of Japanese woodcuts made it all the way to Vincent Van Gogh in Paris. He grew obsessed with ukyio-e, or “pictures of the world,” joyful elements he copied into his own art.

‘Seeing with Japanese eye’

Van Gogh amassed a collection of Japanese wood prints in his Paris studio. It was there he started emulating the bright and exotic images of Japanese art, an influence he called Japonaiserie.

“My studio’s quite tolerable, mainly because I’ve pinned a set of Japanese prints on the walls that I find very diverting. You know, those little female figures in gardens or on the shore, horsemen, flowers, gnarled thorn branches.
Vincent Van Gogh

According to the exhibition of Van Gogh & Japan at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, the artist adopted the ‘bold, flat areas of color, bold contour lines, and prominent diagonals.’ He even cropped subjects at the edges of pictures and used the Japanese unique play on foreground/background spatial effects.

Van Gogh’s Japanese obsession permeated his work. “All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art,” he told his brother Theo.

Courtesan (after Eisen) by Vincent van Gogh (1887)

Find out more about Van Gogh’s love affair with Japan at the Exhibition Van Gogh & Japan.
The only reassurance you need

September 17th, 2019

We treat fame and social media status like currency. We presuppose that anonymity or a lack of engagement trivializes what we do.

Even worse, we let TV and Instagram determine our self-worth.

But what and who matters is rarely popular. No one wants to pull back the curtain and see the sweat and tears of a Van Gogh, who toiled in obscurity his entire living life. He never knew publicity.

Even if you’ve achieved some level of recognition, what you consider your best work will almost always contrast with the public perception.

At the end of the day, humans want to feel necessary. They want to commit themselves to a worthy discipline, whether’s it’s expressed through art or driving an Uber to support the art or vice versa.

It’s a canard to think that fame predetermines whether you matter or not. The most important things in your life are provided by the most anonymous people.

Fame is fake stimuli. If you feel like your work matters, that’s the only placebo you need.
Van Gogh: ‘These waves are claws, the boat is caught in them, you can feel it.’

April 11th, 2018

The Great Wave off Kanagawa Door Way Curtain (Amazon)

Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai finished his most famous work, The Great Wave, at the age of 71. Upon seeing the print, Van Gogh remarked: “These waves are claws, the boat is caught in them, you can feel it.”

Read about Hokusai’s great wave: a lesson in persistence
How to unthink

April 9th, 2019

Knowledge can be a hindrance. The more we know, the more likely we’re to hesitate in times of execution.

So the overthinking basketball player misses a wide-open layup, the tennis player misses an easy return, or the painter or writer can’t seem to get their inspiration to convert on a blank canvas.

We trip over our best selves. Stalling is also a symptom of facing the resistance. When we try too hard to be perfect, we end up producing nothing at all.

So how can we stem the tide of excess contemplation?

One of the ways to think less is to do it poorly.

For the artist, that may mean making until we have something to play with. As Vincent Van Gogh put it: “Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile.”

Another way to readjust the psychological thermostat is by substituting perfection with joy. When we enjoy what we’re doing, everything else disappears. Execution doesn’t need thought.

We are ultimately our best when we’re relaxed and instinctive, free from the chaos of the monkey mind.

Unthinking is the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing your thinking self from the equation. Its power is not confined to sport: actors and musicians know about it too, and are apt to say that their best work happens in a kind of trance.
Non cogito, ergo sum

So do the work and let go, let God. Once you get out of your head, you’ll get out of your own way.

art via giphy
Creativity is a form of prayer

July 7th, 2018

We give anxiety power, and the right brain consciousness loves to conjure up imaginary bombs of self-destruction.

What if instead of keeping any worries in we could express them through outward movement, some form of art.

The art of fiction, the art of underwater basket weaving, the art of rolling dice — whatever you fancy as a release from the prison of unnecessary worry.

Keep in mind that anxiety is not a prerequisite for making stuff. All creativity is a form of prayer.

There are plenty of genuinely happy artists that express themselves through their work. I’d say Paul McCartney is one of them, for instance. But there’s plenty on the opposite side of the spectrum like Francis Bacon or Vincent Van Gogh, whose paintings allowed them to release inner demons.

Transmuting either happiness or anxiety into a blank canvass helps prevent any excess storage.

“The talent to make art accompanies the need for that art; they arrive together.” — John Berger, Here is Where We Meet
Famous artworks ‘Re-ymagined’ with the people edited out

May 21st, 2018

Re-ymagined, “is an art project that digitally renders the reality of the artists’ environment before they started to draw,” says New York-based artist Yulia Pidlubnyak.

It all started with Van Gogh’s Cafe Terrace, where she redrew the painting with Autodesk 3ds Max but erased the people to elucidate the lighting, framing, and shapes.

Check out her revisions of works from both Grand Wood, Andrew Wyeth, and Edward Hopper below. Pidlubnyak’s rework appears on the left, with the original painting on the right.

(h/t Fast Code Design)
Staying edgy…

July 8th, 2018

The audience already exists. The hard part is getting them to pay attention to your story.

How do you gain a fan base in the era of distraction? You select a specific audience, even one person, and write for them.

Different is attractive

The first few years of anonymity are the hardest but they are also the freest. You get to write what you want with zero expectations. It’s the recognition that threatens your edginess. Said the famous rock DJ John Peel, “Success blurs. It rounds off the rough edges.”

The trick to longevity, therefore, seems to be in the durability of your original pursuit.

If you can maintain your uniqueness while sharpening the tools, why dumb down your art to maximize reach?

To echo Dolly Parton’s advice, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”

Yet, the harshest reality as an artist is that your work may never get noticed. Van Gogh only sold one print while he was alive, and it was to his brother!

Posthumous recognition or not, you can only try to do your best work, to stay dedicated and keep showing up even if no one cheers you on.

The fire within should create enough artistic rage to keep rejuvenating itself.

“We do with our life what we can and then we die. If someone is aware of that, perhaps it comes out in their work.”
Francis Bacon

‘Seeing with Japanese eye’

So how can we stem the tide of excess contemplation?

Different is attractive