Olive Trees

Vincent van Gogh painted this scene while living in a mental instition in France. These trees and mountains were inspired by the actual landscape surrounding the courtyard of the asylum where he stayed.

Imagine that! Taking the incidental landscape surrounding a difficult situation and casting them in such a way that is inspiring even a century later. The audience can’t pick up on the anguish, or the isolation that van Gogh may have felt there, but the beauty, the power, the simplicity and the profundity of these olive trees can speak to a myriad of situations.

The power of art, no matter what the form, is that it can lift up elements that can be translated into the experience of the consumer. There isn’t too much definition of context, nor too much implied interpretation. Yet, if you look close enough, you can pick up on the emotions, the hopes, the fears through the colors, the brush strokes, and the flowing forms. The Psalmist writes, “deep speaks to deep.” Indeed, the depth of experience can relate to our own longing and sense of contemplation.

What do you see?