The Blank Canvas
Among the list of people that I admire, is Vincent Van Gogh. No — not just for his paintings, but also for the thought that went behind creating his art. To me, he was more of a philosopher than an artist. and it is this triat of his, that makes me admire him even more.
Recently, I encountered an extract from a letter that Vincent wrote to his brother, Theo:
You don’t know how paralyzing it is, that stare from a blank canvas that says to the painter you can’t do anything. The canvas has an idiotic stare, and mesmerizes some painters so that they turn into idiots themselves.
Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas IS AFRAID of the truly passionate painter who dares — and who has once broken the spell of “you can’t.”
Life itself likewise always turns towards one an infinitely meaningless, discouraging, dispiriting blank side on which there is nothing, any more than on a blank canvas.
But however meaningless and vain, however dead life appears, the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, and who knows something, doesn’t let himself be fobbed off like that. He steps in and does something, and hangs on to that, in short, breaks, “violates”…
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