I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art today with my Mom to see the Van Gough exhibit. The museum sits up on a hill in Philly and looks imposing. If you have ever seen the movie Rocky, he runs up the stairs of the museum and raises his arms over his head in triumph. It was amusing to see people young and old posing for pictures at the tops of the stairs in their best Rocky pose. My Mom and I got a kick out of two women doing their walking/running exercise weaving in and out of some round granite mounds at the top of the stairs and set out on a long approach to the front door of the museum. One woman was chugging along up front and her friend was two steps behind chatting and motivating her. It was really nice to see-a true buddy system. I admired them. I need to find a walking buddy. Right now I walk alone but would like to walk more. I’ve always imagined walking the Appalachian Trail end to end but I really don’t like camping.

The Van Gogh exhibit was amazing. It was very crowded though this was the only US showing of this particular group of pictures. I connected years ago on a personal level with his paintings again at this Museum when they had a exhibition called Van Gogh Faces (I think it may have been portraits) but it was all faces. I never cared for his work when I was younger and did not understand what people saw in it. But then I as I walked through the Faces exhibit and read the wall panels on his personal and professional struggles I realized I actually had a lot in common right down to the self doubt. Today at the exhibit I found such joy in the colors, brush strokes and textures of the paintings. I fell in love with three paintings i had never seen before. One was a picture depicting rain as if you were in the rain shower itself. The second was colorful painting of a garden in a backyard of a cottage. Oh the colors took my breath away! The third was a fabulous painting of a couple walking in the forest. They almost looked ghostly. My Mom did not see the woman in the picture until I pointed her out. Again reading the side panels I found I had two more things in common with Van Gogh-I take close up pictures of things. I love concentrating on the detail of something-flowers, animals eyes, and trees. I also found he liked using perspective as a way to talk to the world. While I don’t talk to the world I have found how my perspective is affects a lot of how I react to the world. After looking at and being around Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings today I may start drawing again. I am inspired!