Heigh Ho off to Van Gogh we Go...

In about February 2022, we started receiving notices that a new exhibit could be visited in Cincinnati. The exhibit was the Van Gogh Immersion Experience. This intrigued Claude and me. Claude purchased three tickets. As the date approached, we asked our daughter, Andie, if she was interested in attending this with us. She was very interested. 

Tuesday, June 7th, Andie said she was running the schedule past her family to be sure all would work. Bailey said, "I want to go to that." Andie contacted me and asked if Bailey could go in her place. Of course she could. 

Wednesday, June 8th, Andie and her children finished cleaning out her classroom. Then Hayden was able to get a few more of his driving hours in by driving himself, Andie and Bailey to our home. They would spend the night so it would be easier to get up in the morning and get ready to drive to Cincinnati. 

Thursday, June 9th, Hayden had a YouTube program he wanted to watch while we were gone. Andie had a book she wanted to read. Claude, Bailey and I left for Cincinnati at 10:30am. We were assigned a time slot to keep crowds to a minimum. The drive went well, no backups in traffic. There was one concern and that was as we approached the drive leaving Kentucky to cross the Ohio River into Ohio. A man on a motorcycle in front of us was driving very weird. I was very concerned for his safety. Claude and I spent many years on a motorcycle and are very aware of the inherent danger of riding a bike. There was some backfire of his bike and then he rode leaning to the right and working with something on that side of his bike as he drove. This particular stretch of road is just before crossing the Brett Spence bridge. Traffic is heavy and people are changing lanes to be in the correct lane to exit the Interstate, take another Interstate or exit to a street in Cincinnati as soon as they cross the river. I was grateful Claude was driving as he was aware of the problems this motorcyclist was causing for himself and others. He would slow way down slower than all the rest of the traffic. Claude would slow but sometimes he was right on the guys bumper. I kept hoping this man would move to the side of the road but he kept leaning and working with his bike like everyone was to stay out of his way. I was grateful when our change of lanes came up and we were not behind this poor fella and his motorcycle. 

We found a parking garage and walked the block to the venue. We were a little early but went in anyway. They scanned our tickets and let us begin our visit to the Van Gogh Immersion Experience. The exhibit was clearly set up in an old empty building they had worked to create a museum in. They cleverly painted the walls in the stairways like Van Gogh's Starry Night. It was very well done. The canvases on the walls had the painting projected onto them. Lots of well laid out signs to explain Van Gogh's life and the story behind the paintings. 

The first part of the exhibit was more like going through an art gallery. The first of several images that had movement was a bust of Van Gogh. The bust started as a normal looking bust and then they projected painting of flowers that Van Gogh did over his bust. 

There was a series of some of his paintings. I came away understanding that Van Gogh loved nature and painted many flowers and outdoor scenes. He would paint the same flowers over and over. The Sunflower painting he is so famous for is actually two series of sunflower paintings. Trying differences in colors and stages of the growth of the flower. He did this repetition of painting something a lot. 

Another video type presentation explained, using Starry Night, that they now are sure that Van Gogh was color blind. His bold use of color was him compensating for the way he saw things. It allowed him to be more free with how he painted. They have learned this by an expert taking his painting and running it through multiple color processes. 

Then I was fascinated with the vase video. I shouldn't call it a video. But I really don't know what to call it. The stationary item was the vase. Then the screen would slowly add the image of one of Van Gogh's floral paintings in a vase. This would morph into another of his paintings of flowers in a vase and the vase might change its color to go with that painting. Fascinating to watch. Here are some of the flowers I liked best in this presentation.

Before we left this room, the final painting was of Tree Roots. It has now been determined this was the final painting by Van Gogh.

We entered another room with cameras projected on the floor. You stood where the camera image on the floor was and they had three dimensional representations of some of Van Gogh's art that you could have your picture taken in front of. One of these I could not figure out what it was so I simply took a picture of it. But two of them we took advantage of getting a picture of Bailey with each of us.

Then we went down a little hallway with self-portraits Van Gogh had painted. 

We took a hike up the stairs. They went up and up and up and up and up one more time! Then we entered a large room. There were lawn chairs and big pieces of carpet to sit on spaced apart for social distancing. There was a raised area you could also sit on. This is immersive because there is art projected on all four walls of the room. This art is accompanied by music and follows his life story through his paintings. The paintings morph from one to the other so there is constant movement on all four walls. It was delightful to watch all of this. The people come and stay till they get back to the part where they entered and then they get up and leave. So, there is movement of people throughout the Immersion Experience. I totally enjoyed this portion of our visit. Here are some still shots of these some of these scenes on the walls. 

This is a short video a bit of the Immersion room portion. Absolutely fascinating. 

We made our way to one more room for the Virtual Reality portion. Claude and I did this. Bailey gets car sick and felt she would not do this part. She took pictures of Claude and me as we participated in the virtual reality. This portion had you moving through eight of Van Gogh's paintings. It was amazing. And, Bailey got a kick out of our reactions as we watched through our VR devices. 

Vincent Van Gogh had a very troubled life. He was beset with depression and psychotic episodes. He was in institutions several times. And yet, he loved nature and reveled in walking and sketching so he could paint what he saw in nature. I truly appreciated the quotes they took from his life and included in this exhibit. In round numbers, they have say 800 letters from his life. 600 of these are between him and his brother, Theo, whom he dearly loved. That is a nice record of Van Gogh. I am sure these quotes came from those letters. Here are a few I really enjoyed.

I enjoyed this afternoon learning a bit about Van Gogh. I only knew a little. Now a know a little more and appreciate him. For all his troubled mind and life, there is something positive in his quotes and the beauty of his colors and style of painting. This was a very good use of our time.