One of my new favorite rappers Aesop Rock recently dropped an album called Integrated Tech Solutions. The album is a masterpiece to be honest and for anyone into hip-hop I believe it is something great to check out. He has a different sound but I think he is one of the best underground artists out there. Anyway, he had an interlude on the album talking about failure and what he brought up was a painting by Vincent Van Gogh that he initially didn't like at first but has grown to like. The painting he was talking about was Landscape with Snow and for non-art lovers they will see it as a weird painting with no type of imagery but Art lovers will be able to use their imagination to find a lot of things to like about it.
Aesop Rock realizing how much he liked the painting now looked it up on google and found the quote "Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime and was considered a madman and a failure". This brought awareness to the life of Van Gogh and how exactly we define failure. I don't think most people familiar with his work will see Van Gogh as a failure especially with the impact he has had on the world and how much his paintings continue to influence the world today. The lens in which we see failure is different from everyone else. There are times in which we as human beings have this image of what success is supposed to look like and that keeps us from appreciating how far we have come. None of us are perfect and the thing about life is there will be continuous up and downs and we will hit bumps in the road but that doesn't make us failures.
Trying to figure things out is okay and patience is something we can give ourselves. With Van Gogh it is known that he started painting at the age of 27 and in a span of 9 years was able to make 900 paintings and 1000 drawings. I don't know what we consider failure but that doesn't seem like it to me. Of course Van Gogh had his struggles in life like any other human and unfortunately committed suicide due to his continuous battle with his mental health but what separates him from human beings today? Working in the mental health field I have seen how much people go through on the daily and the battle is not something everyone is able to fight through. In a past post I talked about how everyone needs some type of help and for some something simple as taking their medications are essential in them being able to go through each day.
I don't know the full details of what Van Gogh was going through and I'm sure none of us do but his life wasn't less important than anyone else. What we can learn is to define our own way of success. For some just being able to get out of bed to do something with their lives is considered a success because not everyone is able to even do that. We have to give ourselves some time and some grace when it comes to some things because being too hard on ourselves will ultimately lead to our downfall. I'm going to include some of my favorite Van Gogh's paintings and for anyone interested I believe you should check out his work. His impact on Modern Art is endless.
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