120 original letters are displayed alongside the works Van Gogh was working on/writing about at the time. I'm really enjoying his rough sketches integrated into the letters themselves.
It all makes me want to get my sketchpad out again.
All 902 letters in their entirety have actually been posted online. They're annotated, illustrated, translated--and indexed and searchable.
Despite all I've heard over many years of the relationship between the brothers, nothing prepared me for the level of intensity and communication between them as seeing these letters. Though a fair number of these are to other family members, by far the preponderance appear to begin Dear Theo. It provides a glimmer of the devastation Theo must have experienced at the death of his brother.
Here's a randomly selected sample.
The Letters website includes biographical information and information on historical context, and a full chronology. The index entries are linked with popup window summaries.
This is a demonstration par excellence of an understanding of and appreciation for the Commons.
And of course I come away in awe of Vincent Van Gogh.
I was going to end this journal entry here, but the more I think about it the more I want to say about the generosity of the Van Gogh project. If one looks closely and patiently, eventually a tagline is evident: The Van Gogh Museum's Partner in Science is Shell. In a small font-size. Grey, not black. Whispered, an aside. Such a gift represents the best of informed corporate citizenship, and I believe is deserving of respectful recognition.
I look at the tabs in my blogger.com work page: Posting, Settings, Template, Monetize. Must everything be monetized? I have no interest whatsoever in putting ads in my journal entries, and for more and deeper reasons than I can put into words. I've got other ways to earn enough money for basics.
First of all, these entries are not really intended for much of an outside audience--if you're reading them, you're welcome here, but please consider these just the ramblings of a man of a certain age who is enjoying creating a comfortable space to spend some time on occasion.
I would be less than honest if I didn't admit that I enjoy the thought of others in my family occasionally taking a peak at what's going on inside the mind of a person of few spoken words. But the chances of that happening in their busy lives is essentially slim to none, so I don't spend much energy in that direction.
In this context, I send these journal entries out into the world, humble gifts to the universe, notes in bottles tossed into the sea that are really just love notes to anyone who happens to run across them.
Why would I want to monetize that? Monetize. To me it sounds like a curse. Perhaps if I had thousands of readers and were incurring server expenses I'd be forced to confront the issue. Is bigger always better?
So when I see a project of the scale of the Van Gogh letters that are simply sent into the universe, I appreciate it and take it in the spirit of the gift that's being offered.
Thank you.
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