tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post8162067625220159311..comments2023-10-08T08:48:18.513-04:00Comments on The Dalai Grandma: Medicating Van GoghJeanne Desyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800258273705288582noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-20210782512685408982012-04-23T20:04:26.942-04:002012-04-23T20:04:26.942-04:00Something else I want to say - I am much more like...Something else I want to say - I am much more likely to write poetry when I am depressed, and it is usually better than what I write when happy. When happy, you just want to live.Jeanne Desyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07800258273705288582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-49069999019441451352012-04-23T20:03:32.608-04:002012-04-23T20:03:32.608-04:00Sadly, my father - also a chronically depressed al...Sadly, my father - also a chronically depressed alcoholic - had no artistic bent. If he had, he would have written poetry. After he died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, I found a poetry book on his desk with "Crossing the Bar" bookmarked. It was so sad to me that he felt death coming, but went out quite alone. He hadn't talked to any of us kids about it, and my mother was in some dementia with stroke, but he hadn't talked to her. He should have majored in literature and become a professor and written poetry, but he went into engineering and ended up in defense research. Sigh. What he thought a man did.Jeanne Desyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07800258273705288582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-81321295902039289462012-04-23T11:30:29.578-04:002012-04-23T11:30:29.578-04:00I grew up with a depressed alcoholic artist father...I grew up with a depressed alcoholic artist father who painted, drew, etched the demons in his soul. Sadly, the best pieces are the ones that show the loneliness that he created for himself. He could barely love his four children, since he never loved himself. He loved Van Gogh, yet could never paint the beauty in life, until he was close to death.Was Oncehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14997943977882019444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-75059413095990356262012-04-21T20:50:55.298-04:002012-04-21T20:50:55.298-04:00Desiree - the biography also shows how he studied ...Desiree - the biography also shows how he studied painters and knew deeply the Western tradition that he refused to follow at last. He was drawn to art and deeply learned. And it seems that vision was his strongest sense. His life showed tremendous diligence at whatever he undertook, including, at last, painting.Jeanne Desyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07800258273705288582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-8019092601500968892012-04-21T20:48:33.406-04:002012-04-21T20:48:33.406-04:00Or they have Irises, very pretty. I like the shoes...Or they have Irises, very pretty. I like the shoes more, and the night scenes. He was brilliant, in touch with the inner sacredness of life. I like to imagine that even people who buy tennis shoes with reproductions of his paintings are touched just a little by that essence. Maybe not. But the originals - when I walked around a corner in MOMA and there was Starry Night three feet in front of me, I gasped. His energy flowed out of those layers and layers of paint, those brushstrokes.Jeanne Desyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07800258273705288582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-34873037507177066212012-04-21T20:45:08.458-04:002012-04-21T20:45:08.458-04:00I'm so happy to hear this, because I still get...I'm so happy to hear this, because I still get anxious talking openly about my bipolar-ordered mind. I spent decades hiding behind normalcy. I do this now so it might help someone else. And it does have a lot to do with my fascination with Van Gogh. His life, my life. There's a way it goes with bipolar. Thank God, someone put a paintbrush in his hand, though I haven't got to that part yet. Someone put a typewriter in mine.Jeanne Desyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07800258273705288582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-83274785291414424962012-04-21T14:33:18.793-04:002012-04-21T14:33:18.793-04:00I've read some of the letters online from Vinc...I've read some of the letters online from Vincent to Theo ...as an artist it was interesting to see how someone I view as "great" ...did struggle. I had never consciously thought he did, even though I know parts of his biography. Seeing his work...it looked like effortless beauty. In his letters though I heard his questions and that perhaps art is a talent that is acheived and that we're not just born with - though some people may be, not all the people we view as great have it as inborn. This gives me hope...<br /><br />Thank you for sharing!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-1694511368883264132012-04-21T10:34:02.421-04:002012-04-21T10:34:02.421-04:00Dear Dalai Grandma,
How karma works! Your last l...Dear Dalai Grandma, <br /><br />How karma works! Your last line is exactly what I needed to hear after yesterday's crew meeting. You're amazing. <br /><br />Love, <br /> AJAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-53004554796610790092012-04-20T21:34:28.181-04:002012-04-20T21:34:28.181-04:00I think that the people who like Van Gogh, who don...I think that the people who like Van Gogh, who don't really know or appreciate art, typically just have a copy of Sunflowers up on the wall. I think he's brilliant. I didn't like his art when I was in highschool, I was all MONET, but there is so much genius in Van Gogh's work. I don't know if I came to appreciate him more on my own, or because my son is so fascinated by his art.karensomethingorotherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476544335741075497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7123326368423499292.post-10378116182927219442012-04-20T15:26:36.312-04:002012-04-20T15:26:36.312-04:00It was interesting to me to see, right after I pos...It was interesting to me to see, right after I posted this, someone in Holland reading it.Jeanne Desyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07800258273705288582noreply@blogger.com