WEEK 3
Activity: Reflections
Compose a blog post that reflects on some of the themes and ideas covered this week. Discuss:
- Who is an artist working in your field that has a disability? What language do you notice they use in talking about their disability? Does the language that the media use around them differ from that language?
The iconic tortured artist, Vincent Van Gogh strove to convey his emotional and spiritual state in each of his artworks. Although he sold only one painting during his lifetime, Van Gogh is now one of the most popular artists of all time. His canvases with densely laden, visible brushstrokes rendered in a bright, opulent palette emphasize Van Gogh’s personal expression brought to life in paint. Each painting provides a direct sense of how the artist viewed each scene, interpreted through his eyes, mind, and heart. This radically idiosyncratic, emotionally evocative style has continued to affect artists and movements throughout the 20th century and up to the present day, guaranteeing Van Gogh’s importance far into the future. [1] Vincent van Gogh is remembered for both the striking color, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms of his art and for the turmoil of his personal life. In part because of his extensive published letters, van Gogh has been mythologized in the popular imagination as the quintessential tortured artist. [2] Despite all these problems which contributed to his illnesses, we however also would like to stress that Van Gogh was not only a great and very influential painter but also an intelligent man with enormous willpower, resilience, and perseverance. He must have had a strong constitution. He was able to arouse compassion, himself having compassion for the less fortunate. And he was a passionate man with a strong temperament. Over the years he kept on painting, also during the most difficult periods in his life… [3] They didn’t use specific language like “disability”. They were full of appreciation and admiration for the artist.
[1] Vincent van Gogh DUTCH DRAFTSMAN AND PAINTER, THE ART STORY FOUNDATION, https://www.theartstory.org/artist/van-gogh-vincent/.
[2] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica， Vincent van Gogh
Dutch painter，https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vincent-van-Gogh.
[3] Nolen, W.A., van Meekeren, E., Voskuil, P. et al, 2020, New vision on the mental problems of Vincent van Gogh; results from a bottom-up approach using (semi-)structured diagnostic interviews, https://journalbipolardisorders.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40345-020-00196-z.
- To the extent that you feel comfortable sharing publically, what is your experience of diability? How might this affect the art that you want to create, or the people you seek to work with? My disability experience is I was injured in my right ear when I was a child, and I was deaf in my right ear. When someone speaks softly or with a lisp, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Sometimes I ask them to repeat it, but some people get impatient, and I just keep my doubts to myself. Although my disability experience created feelings of inferiority, it developed my patience and endurance. I will listen attentively and work on a project with focus and patience.
