THE SOWER (After Millet)

Tis another weekend.  Wish there was a way to stall the passing of time.  Every second that ticks away takes us closer to that fateful last second of life.  Now, that's a fretful way to start out a post.  Maybe I deserve a slap on the fingers for typing negativity.  BUT, it is reality.

Yesterday I was bummed out, and still am.  I realized the editor of our newsletter published the February newsletter early and didn't tell me. My article is my contribution to our family of friends.  Why am I finding it difficult to accept it's an oversight?  Another lesson that we're hurt the most by the things that mean the most.

Went to bed at 3 this morning and was up at 8.  My eyes are troubling me, so am going to order online from WM this moist cold and warm compress with elastic strap.  Having to wait three months for a consultation with the second doctor warrants some t.l.c. on my part.  Don't they say when things get tough, the tough get going?  It's kinda pricey at $28.99, but that's minimal if it gives relief.  I'll give myself my own personal spa day.

  Gogh started out primarily drawing with pencil and painting with watercolor.  Then he began painting in oils in 1882.  He was fascinated by the work of artist Jean-Francois Millet, who is noted for his painting of peasant farmers.  Today we see Vincent's version of"The Sower (after Millet)" done in pen/pencil and watercolor on paper.  Van Gogh did more than thirty variations of the man sowing seeds. 

The Sower (after Millet) - 1881

Van Gogh explored his interest in the ministry to serve the working people.  He eventually rejected the church establishment, yet found a personal spirituality that was important to him.  By 1879, he found he could express his love of God and man through painting.  It is said that Vincent developed a self-styled religious belief.  He saw Christ as a great poet, and his favorite part of the Bible were the parables.  This Sower (after Millet) is a painted parable.  The Sower symbolizes the eternal cycle of existence.  Sowing seeds brings forth new life.  The Sower of Seeds represents the sower of God's word.  

Although Vincent was born into a middle-class family, he came from the small town of Nuenen in the Netherlands, where he witnessed agriculture and hard labor.  He later worked in areas of great poverty, where he developed a strong respect for society's lowly class.  He said the subject of peasantry calmed his mind during times he struggled with the materialistic world.  In 1885, Van Gogh described the painting of peasants as the most essential contribution to modern art.🖌

The temperatures here today are to get to the upper 20s.  Nary a cloud in the sky from my vantage point.  We had rainbows on the walls this morning, my beaded sun catchers the simple conduits of wall whimsy.  Ta-ta till the morrow.