Van Gogh Immersive Experience

Never published this.

Not sure why, and it has been years.

Anyway, better late than never.

Did not know what to expect. Thought it might be something where it is on a strict timeline. Our tickets were for 1:30 in the afternoon, and we arrived 

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience was, indeed, a great experience. Whether or not you are familiar with the artist, his life, or his work, you really feel like you get to know him, his work, and his story as you are in this exposition. 

This felt like a new way to view the works of an artist. Strangely enough, while there were no originals of his actual work on display, at least to my knowledge, I still felt that the viewer got a chance to really appreciate, admire and understand the work, as well as what was going on in the artist's life leading up to, and surrounding, the artwork.

At first, it felt a bit like a regular art exposition. But there did reach a point when it felt like it really transcended that in a big way. That was particularly true of the enormous room right at the end, where his life and artwork were magnified to an enormous extent, and where everything else is more or less drowned out, so your focus is entirely on the artwork and the story of the artist.

However, what added to that was the virtual reality bit, which came at the very end. It was quite well done, and you really feel like you were in the town where Van Gogh got most of his influences and motivations for the paintings which have now largely immortalized him.

It is not very cheap, yet is more or less the price that many museums would charge to get in. And again, you really do feel like you get a good, solid experience with it. Recommended, even if you are not the biggest fan or the artist, or even of the art in general. This is for anyone who wants to appreciate what others seem to appreciate in the works of a great, and in this case, a truly tortured, artist. 

A Poem That Put's America's Obsession With Guns In Perspective

Last week, perhaps the leading major story in the United States was another school shooting. This one was even more shocking than other similar shootings, because the kid involved had documented mental issues, including having threatened to conduct a school shooting about a year ago. And then, his father, despite the knowledge of his son's mental issues and the previous threat of a mass shooting, gifted his son a gun, which he obviously used in this school shooting.

Only in America do you hear such stories. 

This was very early in the new academic year. School had not been in session in Georgia (where this shooting occurred) for even two weeks.

To his credit, President Joe Biden declared that more is needed than "thoughts and prayers," which is actually something I agree with.

Recently, I found this poem by Brian Bilston, which I frankly thought worth sharing at this time:

America Is A Gun  

England is a cup of tea. 

France, a wheel of ripened brie. 

Greece, a short, squat olive tree. 

America is a gun.  

Brazil is football on the sand. Argentina, 

Maradona's hand. 

Germany, an oompah band. 

America is a gun.  

Holland is a wooden shoe. 

Hungary, a goulash stew. 

Australia, a kangaroo. 

America is a gun.  

Japan is a thermal spring. 

Scotland is a highland fling. 

Oh, better to be anything 

than America as a gun.” 

― Brian Bilston

A Happy Little Weekend Marathon! - The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

Thought I'd share this  Youtube link for a weekend marathon of "The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross," just in case anyone's interested. 

Previously Unpublished Pictures of Our Visit to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

This weekend, I was trying to empty my cell phone of all of it's pictures. This was a task which was, frankly, long overdue, and which is still not nearly over. Yet, it felt good to actually get it started, at least on some level.

Among the pictures which were still there were from the holiday season visit which my son and I took to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. We crossed Central Park in the dark to get there, and I stopped and took a few pictures there, especially of Belvedere Castle.

Below are the pictures, some of which have already been published, but most of which were not. Be warned, some of them are repetitive. It just made more sense to unload them, and I did not exactly have tons of time to go through them all, or pick only the cream of the crop for this particular blog entry. So again, there are some duplicates.

Still, I think that many of these are quite nice, and were pleasant memories of a great trip to a world class museum.

Enjoy!