Back in 2003, a friend gifted me with a picture of Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” painting which my sister framed and put up on my living room wall. It was one of the first few objects that decorated my new home. I had just fulfilled one of my childhood dreams of building my own house and Van Gogh’s painting of the night sky as it danced across the canvas with so much power, seemed to welcome me to a new beginning in my life.
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A few years later, I had the chance to visit MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York City where I came face to face with the actual painting. Despite the chaos and utter confusion which Van Gogh may have felt when he painted “Starry Night”, the painting filled me with a soothing sense of calm and peace. Like that first time when I looked at it in my living room wall, the radiant stars illuminating the darkened village seemed to reassure me of someone keeping watch. I had just gotten married then and once again, I felt that Van Gogh’s painting was ushering me to yet another new beginning.
Many have speculated that Van Gogh's painting reflects what it's like to be misunderstood. At least, this is what I think Don McLean tells us in the song “Vincent”, inspired as he was of Van Gogh’s painting and life. My relationship with the painting however is one of hope. Despite the darkened sky that Van Gogh painted with so much passion, the glowing starlight reminds me that my fears and pain can be turned to courage and joy if, and only if, I begin again.
Beginnings can be both happy and sad. But as Plato once said, “the beginning is the most important part of our work.”
