The Woman Who Made Vincent van Gogh Famous

Her name is Jo van Gogh-Bonger. She was the wife of Theo van Gogh and sister-in-law to his brother, Vincent van Gogh--the artist.

I saw a book about Jo while recently visiting the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). It is nearly 2" thick, quite heavy and contains 535 pages of which 171 are a combination of notes/footnotes, abbreviations, bibliography and an index. The book itself is written in six sections. The first section is about Jo's life to the point when she marries Theo. That is as far as I've gotten.

What I'm looking forward to reading in the remaining sections is how she grew into the ambitious, determined and undeterred advocate of Vincent's art after his and Theo's deaths, especially since she was left to raise a son on her own.

Below is the book's cover with Jo's photograph. As part of reading it, I've started a zine to act like SparksNotes to keep track of the key points to me about her journey. Below the book cover is the front and back of the zine -- the back being my impression of Vincent's 'Sunflowers' painting. I'm happy with this particularly in having mimicked the artist's color palette pretty well. The real Van Gogh 'Sunflowers' painting can be seen in the screenshot at the bottom of this post.

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Visiting The Hague and Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Paris!

Since late March, I've been planning an international solo trip that included meeting up with friends. The planning is what makes a trip an adventure, and it was definitely fabulous -- now that it is in the rearview mirror -- so to speak. During my two weeks abroad, the sights visited included the: Mauritshuis, a lovely art museum (The Hague, Netherlands) Binnenhof (The Hague, Netherlands) Delft (Netherlands) Kasteel de Haar, a castle (Haarzuilens, Netherlands) Museum Speelklok (Utrecht, Netherlands) Walking Tour of Amsterdam (Netherlands) Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Dutch Resistance Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) De Oude and Nieuwe Kerks aka old and new churches (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Anne Frank House (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Sainte Chapelle/Conciergerie (Paris, France) Giverny - Monet's residence at one time (outside Paris) Versailles (outside Paris) Musee d'Orsay/VR Event titled 1874 Impressionists First Exhibition

New Project in Progress

I'm working on a new project with multiple layers and shapes of different colored organzas. It is an interpretation of lighting on an ice rink...from a show I recently saw. There is a lot more stitching to do, but I like how its coming along. I'm learning organzas are not easy to work with especially when you layer them and have overlaid edges. The fabric also tends to ravel easily. This post also linked to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .

Concertina Dazzle Days

If you don't know what a Concertina Sketchbook is, it is folded paper (back and forth) that looks like the bellows of an accordion when done. Concertinas can be home-made or purchased, and they are fun to work in. The photos above are of three continuous two-page spreads from my own Concertina (the one on the right - the latest). The mark-making was done with Sharpie markers, Posca pens, Micron pens and Sakura PenTouch markers. All the shapes and color choices in the images above were spontaneous as well as the details. There was no plan. What I like about these is that each two-page spread collaborates with the next one and so on (as the designs spill over from one spread to the next). As new ones are created, they add to the wonderful visual feast. One of the things I love doing with these also -- is to crop sections and digitally mirror them to form symmetrical designs. The results are occasionally delightful. In fact, this one was made from such a process and has a n

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