Immersed in art

Beyond Van Gogh is described as an "immersive experience," and that it is. I had seen TV advertisements for it so had an idea of what we might see, so was unprepared for the pedestrian beginning. When you enter, you wind through lanes of storyboards and quotes printed on giant details of Van Gogh's paintings. I enjoyed reading them all (not all shown here), as well as seeing his brush strokes magnified. I had to clarify for Rick that he was seeing small details of Van Gogh's work, not the whole piece.

From there we walked into a room with rather psychedelic lights streaming down the wall in front of us, with one of the artist's self portraits materializing and then vanishing in the projection. At this point I think Rick was really wondering what he was getting himself in for!

Then we walked down a corridor and into a giant room, where Van Gogh's work played upon the four walls as well as several tall square 'columns.' And I do mean played. The transitions from one set of images to another was done in a variety of ways, and the images themselves played little tricks, like blinking eyes, and an occasional wisp of smoke from a pipe. Music played, and occasionally a child's voice quoted Van Gogh. This was the truly magical part, to watch and listen and almost feel the artwork swirl around you and even wash over you.

The musical selection for this post is obvious. It was part of the background music played at the exhibit, and it has been on my mind a lot since. So bittersweet:

I am so thankful to my DH for this special experience; it truly was a gift of love.

That's it from a contemplative . . .