inspiration: Starry Nigh by Van Gogh

For this bridge project, I chose to draw inspiration from and investigate Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting, currently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art here in NYC. Painted in 1889, this incredibly popular masterpiece was done in oil on canvas and is approximately 29 x 36 inches. Starry Night was an attempt by Van Gogh to capture the early morning sunrise, and the colors and brushstrokes he used to do provided me with a surplus amount of motivation for my bridge project.

I think a very interesting part of this bridge assignment was the initial encouragement to step away from materials that were comfortable or easy to use. I tried to take this advice to the best of my ability, and I relied heavily on photography and digital painting for close to twenty of my pieces. I did get a bit carried away, but using new media was very excited and I felt that I wanted to continue my exploration. I think creating thirty works for this project allowed me to gradually get closer to revealing my message, both to my audience and to myself. I had wanted to explore color as a way to represent different realities, both internal and external, personal and universal. The large, loose brushstrokes utilized by Van Gogh made up swirls that represented his interpreted reality of stars. I want to further explore color association and artistic interpretation of the people and landscapes in the world around us.