The Color of Light: Poems on Van Gogh's Late Paintings

by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Book Overview

The great Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh comes to life in a new light on the pages of this splendid volume. Through eloquent poetic meditations on Van Gogh's late paintings, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802827284
• ISBN13: 9780802827289
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 57 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.6" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful book that brings light to the darkness

The great thing about poetry is that word choice speaks volumes. The words that the poet uses can convey a variety of meanings from love, to apology, to sadness indicative of a deeper tragedy. The point that the reader must remember is that while this book is discussing Van Gogh's darker period, Van Gogh was an impressionist, a painter of light. No matter how depressed he got, he still loved painting how the light touched the items around him. He still could be inspired by the light and work with it to create things of beauty. This poetry is inspiring, and touching, and brings light to a dark period of the reader's life. This book is as influential as Robert Frost's text, Boy's Will.

A Slim Volme That Opens a Wide Window into Spiritual Life with Van Gogh

One day recently, I spread dozens of spiritually themed books across a long series of tables and I invited a group of teenagers to pick up whatever caught their eyes - literally judging these books by their covers. Then, I asked them to spend a little while exploring each book and, finally, explain to us all (with a video camera rolling for our Web magazine, ReadTheSpirit) why they were drawn to the books they had chosen. One of the first books snapped up off the table was this beautiful little volume by writer Marilyn Chandler McEntyre. Several teens actually wanted to claim the book, but one boy finally won the good-natured tussle over the book and settled back to enjoy its creative charms. That experience with these youth is the best way to convey to you the immediate power of this thin volume. It's the sort of book that's great to buy for a gift, or to use with a class, or simply to lay on a table in your home for quiet meditation as the spirit moves you. No, this is not a "religious" book in a formal sense. But, yes, this is a wonderful invitation to deep meditation in the best sense. I'll give you a personal example: I love VanGogh's paintings and, as a journalist for many years, I've made a point of visiting exhibitions around the world that include his works. But, until I read McEntyre's book, I had never stopped to think that the famous painting of Van Gogh's bedroom at Arles includes two chairs and two doorways. I can close my eyes and see this painting after all these years - and, yet, I had never thought of the spiritual implications of two chairs and two doors in this tiny room in this emotionally charged placed in VanGogh's life. McEntyre doesn't belabor these points. Her entire poem on the Arles' bedroom is shorter than this book review. And yet -I will never look at that painting in the same way, again, having encountered McEntyre's poetic meditation on the images. I thank her for the seasons she spent reflecting on these images! Through this book, she has become a companion in future reflections in galleries both of bricks and mortar - and galleries of spiritual reflection.