the man who could see fire

unfortunately, the very first memory i have of vincent van gogh is that soppy song by don mclean. hearing that song, you think of silver, black, and colours generally not found in van gogh paintings. that is what happens when overeager music teachers (and art teachers) start impressing upon you at a young age that "vincent van gogh" = "starry starry night" and "belgian coal miners"

it was a bright and sunny day today, which suddenly reminded me of van gogh while i was walking by the thames with my sister. thankfully, i will always be reminded of van gogh now as the man who could see fire. i don't think my memory is particularly right on this one, but i remember being at the van gogh museum in amsterdam and there being some explanations why yellow was used so much, and i started to think that he started to think of everything in fire and yellow, and it was driving him insane. and michelle also commented how depressing it must be to be so helpless and see all this colour and how it sucked so much to be so dependent (and such a burden to his brother) that he went ahead and offed himself.

it works, because when i did go to vienna and i saw some of his paintings i started seeing the fire everywhere, in the swirls... and how miserable it must have been to see fire.