...Even Van Gogh had a "fear of success" and a "fear of failure"

We know that Van Gogh placed enormous faith in the future, not on the future potential of his own work, but in "an art of the future... so lovely and so young" that it was worth sacrificing his youth and ultimately his life in the making. He was rather a harsh self-critic; many pictures now considered masterpieces were to his mind merely studies. Van Gogh maintained a certain, and not untypical, love-hate attitude toward selling his work. Like most artists he was motivated more by the making, rather than by the selling, of his works. Perhaps he was even more idealistic than most: "My opinion is that the best thing would be to work on till art lovers feel drawn toward it of their own accord, instead of having to praise or explain it."

By the time he died in 1890, at the age of thirty-seven, Vincent van Gogh had painted hundreds of pictures, yet he sold only a few. Today, his paintings sell for millions of dollars each, and his life, as an artist is, legendary. He is the quintessential modern artist, working on the edge of his sensibilities, where life and art are intimately bound together. (Very similar to William Shakespeare's work.)

Hollywood producers are frequently faced with problems such as that Gordon Wiles in 1946 on the set of the motion-picture Bel-Ami:how do you film a rainstorm without ruining the expensive costumes and scenery with water? But the solutions are rarely as out of place as in Wiles case, for he later attributed his solution not to the "wizardry" of cinematographers but to Vincent van Gogh. The Dutch painter's 1885 canvas The Garden of the Vicarage at Nuenen had suggested a way that the illusion of a downpour could be created through the use of plastics, gauzes, and lighting effects, and thus inspired a breakthrough in movie special effects. And wasn't it in 1971, "Vincent", song by artist Don McLean, had teenagers everywhere singing "Starry, starry night..."?

Vincent's legacy of over 800 letters to family and friends, and over 2000 paintings & drawings has been consulted by genuine who's who in twentieth century arts and letters. Alongside art historians, critics, and artist, the impressive roster includes filmmakers, dramatists, songwriters, poets, novelists, and philosophers. Nor has the scientific community been immune: witness the numerous clinical reports on his illness or the more recent investigations of his night skies by astronomers.

I have had The Starry Night, and Starlight over the Rhone hang proudly on my walls. Not so much for bragging rights that I (along with countless others) have a replica of such masterpieces in my home. Not only does his style of work fascinate me, but also the stories behind each painting. The Starry Night was painted while Vincent was in the asylum at Saint-Remy and his behavior was very erratic at the time, due to the severity of his attacks. Unlike most of Van Gogh's works, Starry Night was painted from memory and not outdoors as was Vincent's preference. This may, in part, explain why the emotional impact of the work is so much more powerful than many of Van Gogh's other works from the same period. Is this the work of a tortured mind? Or is there something more we can read within the whorls Vincent's raging night sky? This is what makes Starry Night not only Vincent's most famous work, but also one of its most frequently interpreted in terms of its meaning and importance.

If creative beauty can exist through a touch of madness, then there's nothing one can fail to achieve through persistence and hard work. Slight disregard from outside opinion or conformity can help offset boundaries. Who knows what wonderful things can come to be if we just kept writing, drawing, laughing, and singing...


(The Night Cafe)

"There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.
-Vincent van Gogh"