One Thing Leads to Another February 27, 2008
Posted by carpebanana in : Ramblings , trackbackMy brain and I ramble through life, with one thing leading to another, like cars on a train, connected to each other, only not like a train, more like a rabbit warren or even an ant hill with constant turns and sidetrips.
I tend to assume everyone does this, and that all brains and owners ramble on either the same course I choose, or at least one parallel.
So, think of this entry as a test. See if you flow along with this track or if you would follow a different course.
Last night Miss Language & I had a walk to, through, and home from the mall. The bookstore had this on the clearance rack:
First stop for my brain: (stop and fill in your own)
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Hmmm… Van Gogh has a complete ear in that portrait.
Second stop: (and yours is?)
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So… is this before he cut off the lobe?
Third stop: (where are you in this?)
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Or maybe it was the other ear?
Fourth stop: (again, are you still thinking?)
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Or maybe he did the portrait in a mirror and so this is the reverse?
And then we pull into the station: (what is at your station?)
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I have got to blog this.
Two bonus points for anyone who has stayed aboard this long: First, Miss Language was able to parallel my tracks. Frightening, eh? And second, it was the left ear… so we still don’t have enough information to know why it appears intact here. Art history unit, anyone?
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First stop. Huh. Van Gogh.
Second stop. He looks like Dave-dave. (He was our former neighbor, and DH could never remember his last name, so when DH talked about Dave, and I would ask which one, DH would get exasperated and reply, “Dave. Dave! Dave-dave.”)
I have a one track mind, but I do get derailed easily, so I joined your ear “discussion.”
Which, of course, led me on the chase to find info. Here is what I found on the web: “‘Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear’ was painted after Van Gogh began to suffer from serious mental illness, including psychotic episodes and delusions. The painting was directly motivated by a psychotic attack, during which Van Gogh chased and threatened Gauguin with a knife. Immediately following this episode, Van Gogh returned home, cut his ear off, and offered it to a prostitute as a gift.
After his hospitalization, Van Gogh discovered that Gauguin had left Arles and that Van Gogh’s dreams of forming an artistic community had been destroyed by his own behavior. After suffering a nervous breakdown, he checked himself into a sanatorium. In 1890, Van Gogh succumbed to his illness and depression. He shot himself in the chest and died two days later.”
Which led me to the third stop. I can see why his portrait was on clearance. Who’d want that in their home?
My first stop was “Why was it on clearance?”
My second stop was “Did someone paint that ear in? It doesn’t look right…”
Which led to my final stop “I’ll have to have my 14yo daughter look at it in the morning and tell me if it’s a fake. She would know.”
To be continued…