Starry Night by Brian Dexter M. Medija

"We take a train to reach a city, and death to reach a star."
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

This seemed to be the recurring theme in Van Gogh's painting, Starry Night. The painting articulates the artist's musings for divine reunion after a life estranged from the holy. His failures in his supposed vocation as pastor drove him into a life confined to the realm of despair. But in his tempestuous life, Van Gogh found his true vocation in painting.

Painting proved to be the answer to his constant search of a way to impose himself on things and release himself from the dark pit of depression. He devoted the rest of his life to his craft like a medieval saint--and posthumously attained his revered status as one of the great masters of the post-impressionistic technique.

With heavy brushstrokes, Van Gogh expressed his thoughts and feelings onto his works, and with his devotion to his art, developed a style all his own--with the influence from romantic painter Delacroix and Impressionist theorists.

Van Gogh sought to impose himself on nature and refused the subject to overpower his style. He rendered the night sky in heavy tints of blue and green, and achieved fluidity in the whirling motion of the evening haze and undulating terrain. The stars and moon are in briliant yellow, all with halos of white and yellow. His simplified drawings of the cypress tree and a section of the village shifts the viewer's attention to the more elaborate sky. He defies realism and impressed his own command on the image. It is his way of imposing himself on things and placing them at the mercy of his paintbrush.

With sheer skill and unique style, he crafted "Starry Night," among his last works. The power of the painting and its association with Van Gogh's craving for release is well explained by William Fleming: "The painting reaches upward from the sleeping earth by way of the writhing, twisting, flamelike forms of the cypress tree, church steeple and heaving hills to merge with the incandescent sky where he finds his release and mystical union with the infinite."

This is evidenced further by his letters to his brother, Theo, where he told of his burning desire to capture the spirit of life and his "terrible need of--shall I say the word--religion."

To Van Gogh, the painting is a contemplation of his reunion with his creator. But for me, I see "Starry Night" as an expression of reverence to Him who created the splendor of the evening sky and of the aspiration to achieve the sublime. A very clear focus in the painting are the stars and haze--all painted in Van Gogh's favorite color, yellow. This denotes marvelling on the night sky, inspiring awe and aspiration to reach it.

But, "We take a train to reach a city and death to reach a star." ¤