inspired by the painting The Night Café, his letters, and the piano composition “Red Café” by Kayleen Asbo It can’t all be sunflowers and haystacks and fishing boats. It can’t all be seascapes and still lifes with quince. Sometimes the rooms I paint are blood red, ugly rooms filled with violence and loneliness. And the people who come here are drunkards and derelicts. They huddle in blue despair. They’re down and outs and prostitutes, they’re “sleeping hooligans in dreary rooms.” They slouch and they steal. They drink some more. And the gas lights stare like sour yellow eyes. The floor seems to ripple and the tables seem to weave. And I enter in headlong though I try to leave. And I try to leave, but the chairs are empty and they call me in saying, Here is a place where you can ruin yourself. Come, give in to ruin. Go mad. Come go mad. Come sin. Won’t you sin? Won’t you come in? Come in. Come in. And when it crashes, oh, it crashes, and it all falls down. But I tasted it, sweet chaos, ardent decay, and now that I know it, it never goes away. * My dear friend composer/pianist/historian Kayleen Asbo and I want to offer you the video recording of our hour-long conversation about Vincent Van Gogh, loss and The Art of Creative Collaboration– click here.This project has been such an important part for each of us in holding on to hope and beauty during a dark and challenging time. If it speaks to a part of your own aching soul and you want to share it, you have our blessing to forward it to whomever you wish. If you want to offer a donation in support of our work so that we can professionally record our project in both audio and video format, click here for our Go Fund Me account. If you want to engage in the full collaboration–Vincent’s paintings, Kayleen’s music, and my poems–I hope you will join us in “Love Letters to Vincent” on July 29, the day Vincent died, at 11 a.m. mountain time. We will present the entire collaboration, sending love letters back in time to honor this man who changed the way we see beauty. There will also be a chance to participate in a group creative activity, responding to his work, creating a giant love letter for Vincent. Sliding scale. It will be recorded and sent to all who register. |
