Ran Dome Th’ Oughts
By Andrew Meblin
Apology
For the three of you who are dedicated readers of my “work,” I issue an apology for not having posted anything of significance in the last month or two. Several excuses are proffered below.
We (my wife, my daughter, my dogs) are all in the process of finding and purchasing a home in another state, so life is different than before.
I am job seeking, which is, as you know, a full-time job, in and of itself.*
(And here’s the big reason) I am about 1/3 of the way through writing a fictional account of a family (not mine) that is -----------------------, and that’s all that I can say about that. It is a story I have had in my head on and off again for the last thirty years, maybe longer. It came to me as I was driving south on Interstate 5, in the Sacramento Valley. I closed distance with an RV (not saying what brand) and as I passed I looked out the passenger-side window and saw the driver, and their facial expression. During the remainder of the trip back to the Bay Area, the story of the family entered my head – the driver’s name, the family dynamic, the backstory, and some of the names, and even the music they play.
On subsequent road trips, as I have occasionally found time to accept into my thoughts more details of the characters and locations: their names, their occupations, and their goals in life, that are often at odds with reality.
Why did I wait several decades to begin this work? Why now? Mr. Mark R. heard me describe the characters and plot one afternoon in August, and he urged me to write the story. The dogs insist on breakfast before 7:00am, so I’m up earlier than if I wasn’t in charge of canine catering. Instead of going back to bed I hit the keyboard. So, I’ve been plugging away (HTH does that even relate to working hard?) on the story, rewriting, embellishing, refining, redirecting, and today I am taking time off.
Now, on to sillier lilies.
This family (mine, not the fictional family above) has been spending the rainy days assembling the pieces of picture puzzles. Santa Claus gave two really fancy wood-backed puzzles to Jmeb. One is of Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, and the other is Water Lilies, by some French guy, (more on that later.)
Van Gogh The Starry Night
We finished those puzzles, and have moved on to a traditional cardboard-backed picture puzzle, based also on painting, this time of a famous bookstore in a city that experienced some bad publicity several years back.
The process of assembling picture puzzles is one that allows a person to multitask. Listening to music, snacking, even making or taking a phone call are possible partners to picture puzzles.
Working on puzzles also allows a person to withdraw from worry, and there are plenty of things about which we should be worrying right now. Focusing the mind on finding the right shape and color combination, weighing the possibilities of fitment, and the wondering about why this particular piece looks the way it does, can distract from the predicaments facing mankind, and womankind.
Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, not to be confused with Starry Night Over the Rhône, which actually preceded it, was painted in 1889, in an asylum for people with “issues.” The asylum is in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and since it was operating at half-capacity at the time of Van Gogh’s stay, he was allowed to reside in a second story room at night, and paint in a ground floor room during the day. But! No paint allowed in your bedroom! So, in a sense, The Starry Night was painted from memory. Imagine, looking out the your window, past iron bars, at the tree and the hills and the stars, at night, and then racing downstairs to paint what you saw the following morning.
Van Gogh produced a multitude of images based on that view, out that window, past those bars. One is Green Wheat Fields with Cypress, and of course there is the Rhône version. To see all these artworks in person, one must travel between New York, where the MOMA has The Starry Night, and Prague, to see Starry Night Over the Rhône, and to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and so on. To see them all you’d earn a lot of miles.
Imagine winning the lottery (note how it’s always THE lottery, not A lottery) and buying those paintings and sketches and drawings and assembling them in one place. But with the wonders of the internet, we can see something pretty close to the real thing. Sort of.
From the Van Gogh Immersive Experrience, in Reno, NV
The Van Gogh Immersive Experience is one way to “see” the works of this Dutchman. We saw it in Reno, and I was not expecting it to be so awe-inspiring. The show is still “playing” in the US. Tickets are available Los Angeles, as well as Atlanta, New Orleans, Tucson, Tulsa, and Washington DC. You should go. You can buy lots of Van Gogh swag. I bought a Covid-19 mask with a portion of The Starry Night on it. You know you’ve made it in the art world when people reproduce your work on Covid masks.
About Water Lilies – Claude Monet painted a series of canvases with the same name. He was really old, 70(!) when he hung out in his garden and painted nothing but water lilies. I bet that was a great way to focus the mind and withdraw from worry.
More Art
In the interest of visual representations, I now offer some images I have captured over the last few weeks.
Go with God, my friends.