Musicians, writers, painters, scientists, and many more people share a
skill that many call creativity. Where does it come from besides the activated
frontal lobe of the brain? It’s a tough question that has been explored for
years and has often been linked with mood disorders. Many artists, when their
brains or hands are busy, have learned to channel depression into some type of
creation.
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| First Steps |
March 30, 1953, was the birthday of well-known painter, Vincent Van Gogh,
who lived to be only 37 years old. At the age of 27, he abandoned his
unsuccessful careers as an art dealer and a missionary and concentrated on his
painting and drawing. When he began painting, he used peasants and farmers as
models and then flowers, landscapes and himself because he was too poor to pay
his subjects.
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| Noon Rest |
In less than ten years of his life, he painted
almost 900 paintings. One of his best known works, Starry Night, was painted in in an asylum at
Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France where he voluntarily admitted himself there to
recover from his 1888 nervous breakdown and his ear-cutting incident. The
painting depicts the view from his bedroom window.
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| The Pink Peach Tree |
Ironically, he sold only one painting in his life time. The Red Vineyard which
went for 400 francs in Belgium seven months before his death. His most
expensive painting Portrait
of Dr. Gachet was sold for $148.6 million in 1990.
Why Vincent Van Gogh?
Because he’s just one of scores of visual artists, writers, musicians
and other creative people, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Mark Rothko, Sylvia
Plath, T.S. Eliot, Irving Berlin, Virginia Woolf, and Ernest Hemingway, who are
known or believed to have suffered from mental illness. He was a
prolific artist—not recognized until after his death. Yet, his paintings are
marvelous. I particularly like many of his lesser known works.
I have chosen some pictures by Vincent Van Gogh that are my favorites. Enjoy!
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JudyAnnDavis4
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