Almost finished reading Van Gogh and Gauguin by Druick and Zegers, the in-depth study of the time that Vincent and Gaugin spent together in Arles and the effects that their freindship had on their paintings. The book is divided into weekly calendar sections of the 9 weeks they spent together with paintings, letters, and 1888 Arles weather reports associated with each day. This intimate double portrait is a fascinating work of detection, piecing together of evidence from letters, artworks, and historical data.
This morning I woke up with the inspiration to do paintings based on Ian's New Zealand flower photographs and thinking of Vincent's paintings too. I made some sunflower ATCs last night then found my stash of oil sticks for my art-making and mailing future.
Jon gave me pighed's (Mark Meadow's) book called Pause and Effect about interactive narrative. It reaches back into art history to Giotto and places interaction in relation to the development of vanishing point perspective in terms of visual story-telling. It's a perfect text book for a class in art and technology if I get hired to teach one. After I finish the Vincent and Paul book I'm going to read Pause and Effect.
