Today, I’ve been thinking about this letter I wrote to Vincent Van Gogh at the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit in Charlotte, NC.
Dear Vincent,
You used color to help us feel beauty, genius, wonder and courage in the plain, simple, ordinary and human.
You help us become more human.
Your paintings are salt.
Your paintings are light.
Your paintings are made from the dust.
Like you.
Like me.
Like all of us.
You are the faces you create.
Your sunflowers are the faces of all of God's children.
Your yellows are the lights by which we see.
Your reds are the fire by which we feel.
Your blues are the thoughts by which we think.
Your greens are the life by which we live.
In the face of your humble postman, I see the humble face of God.
Eyes full of mercy.
Eyes full of love.
In the faces of your peasant children, I see the hurting face of God.
Eyes full of hunger.
Eyes full of hope.
Your Starry Night is the very deepest part of being human.
The work of your farmers in the fields creates the world.
Vincent, in my own humble way, I am an artist, too.
Words are my colors.
Stories are my paintings.
Can you feel the human being in the old Gullah woman under the angel oak tree on Johns Island?
Can you see the human face of the migrant boy from the lowcountry of South Carolina via the farms and fields of El Salvador?
Can you hear the human voice of the abuelo who carries hope and suffering in his hands and heart?
I hope so.
Gracias, Vincent, for showing me the way.
Your friend Trevor
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