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What would life be without Art? How would this world live without color, without music, without pottery. How would our dwelling places look without architecture and design? We would be really looking to a pretty drab existence! The presence of art everywhere is what makes our everyday life bearable even if we perceive it only subliminally. Moreover, Art observes, denounces, nourishes and enhances our everyday life experience. The artist is also the conscience of society personified.

Van Gogh was a visionary, somewhat ahead of his time and this was enough for society to shun him and deny him recognition. I can see Van Gogh living in poverty, lacking firewood in the cold of frozen winters, going to bed hungry most of the time, but with the knowledge that his contribution was, for him, an inescapable duty. Artists, real artists, do not strive for economic wealth so much as for the recognition of their peers. Food is not that important if there is nourishment for their soul. But, alas, he was to have neither. Ironically, his brother Theo, who sometimes helped him by buying his artwork, ended up being a very wealthy man. Not to speak of so many others who never picked up a brush but made fortunes with Vincent's paintings. No wonder Van Gogh went crazy.

I wonder what his life would have been like if the world of his time had been open to receive his incredible gifts. If it is his "Shoes" (I'm sure he painted his own shoes, probably the only pair he owned) his starry night, or his fantastic sunflowers, whenever I see any of his paintings I feel a rush of tenderness, pain, loneliness, and exultation. I can get lost in those swirls made of paint daubs for hours.

Impressionism yes, what his painting lacks in realism, is abundantly compensated through its evocative quality. Had he received the appreciation he deserved, we might have a lot more of his paintings to widen our perception of the world today, and to regale our senses with. I hope there is no Time as such, and that, somewhere, this great artist can "hear" my great appreciation of his opus.

Learn more about this author, Sophia Von Wrangell.
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