Why did Van Gough paint the people so ugly?
He made the people look like potatoes.
The woman is pouring coffee and they're eating a communal potato casserole. It doesn't look that bad at all. They earned their dinner by tilling the soil. I guess. It depicts honest crudeness.
But that's nothing against potatoes. Potatoes are fab u lus.
A little butter, some cheese, a bit of milk, herbs from a bush, an onion, and you have a tremendously satisfying meal right there. Add chunks of ham, and BLAMO, another whole level.
I have two friends whose favorite meal is simple seared steak and baked potato. Simple as can be. I played this joke on both of them at different times. They both reacted similarly, like, get outta here.
"Hey! I'll make dinner tonight. I'm thinking about making steak and French fries. How's that sound? No wait. Steak and scalloped potatoes. No wait. Simple boiled potato. No. Diced potatoes and carrots. Potato soufflé. Potato soup. Potato salad. Hashed browns. Potato latkes. Potato dumplings. Steak and potato bread. Does that sound good?"
It was starting to become clear that I was avoiding saying the word "baked" potatoes.
"Potato filled potato dough dumplings. No, how's this? Mashed potato with horseradish, no, with parmesan cheese, no, with lemon dill, no, with sea salt and rosemary. Potato skins with bacon. Fork-crushed with roasted garlic. No wait, no wait, no wait, I got this, I got this, steak and spiral cut potatoes. Boiled potatoes with butter and roasted garlic. Steak and haystack potatoes. Purple and red potatoes. Hasselhoff potatoes!"
It's very easy to think up a million potato things.
"Come on, that'll be great. Potato and beef steak stew. Microwaved smashed potato and egg with a hamburger and cheese. Steak with slices of potato fried in butter as a cake. Steak and potatoes cut as French fries but boiled in water and coated with butter and sour cream and herbs. Potatoes sliced on the grill. Potato and turnips with spinach. Potato and steak as shepherd's pie. Potato hedgehog, potato mountain, potato boat, potato base, potato top. potato creamed, potato chips, potato chunks, potato flecks, shredded potato, dehydrated potato, potato flakes, potato starch, potato coating, potato filling."
I still haven't said baked potato and they're sensing this might be a joke.
"Potato pants, potato shirt, potato hat, potato shoes, potato gloves, potato coat, potato sweater."
I'm avoiding saying "jacket" potato because that's a baked potato.
"Potato socks, potato parka, potato trench coat, potato raincoat, potato underwear, potato dress."
They don't know why I'm saying clothes, but it's clear now they're being f'd with.
"Potato mittens. Potato ski mask. Potato boots, potato high heels, potato kimono, potato cape, potato scarf."
"I hate you."
Tonight I made potato chips for dinner. And it's stupid because I have a whole new bag of potato chips in the pantry that stick right out because the bag is puffed up with nitrogen. Its like a balloon full of potato chips.
If I opened the bag, I would finish it. The whole bag. But I wanted to fry them myself. I wanted to control the amount to exactly one potato worth. I know that I ate precisely one potato. And it was fun. I've become really good at this potato chip making thing.
The key is to have a mandolin with the slices going directly into water to rinse off surface starch, and a bunch of clean kitchen towels. I also like finely ground sea salt. It's very mineral-y and has less concentrated sodium. I think.
Potato chips and dip for dinner. I'll have to get today's vitamins elsewhere.
11 comments:
I love me some potato[e] soup.
Look around. People do look like potatoes.
I'm hooked on gnocchi right now. Gotta have gnocchi at ever meal. Soon this too will pass. Pun not intended.
The thing that's astounding about Van Gogh is that this same painter of Dutch brown was painting in bright primaries less than two years later -- at Arles in the South of France. He went on painting peasants but the painting he did at Arles of a peasant in a blue smock, the face is on fire with reds and yellows.
Potatoes are dry by themselves, so we put ketchup, sar cream (Sixty's getting to me), butter, and anything else on them, but they do help feed the world.
I had a yam growing in my garden all over the patio. By the end of summer you couldn't even step out there without smashing a branch.
Cool info about Van Gogh, ricpic.
Love me some potatoes.
Potato Eaters was painted early in 1885
The misery and poverty of the people Van Gogh encountered in Belgium during his missionary stint there in 1879 was very great, as was his own, with additional turmoil and loss experienced in the seven years that followed that included two entangled and frustrating love interests and the death of his father in March 1885.
In November of 1885, he moved to Antwerp "and rented a room above a paint dealer's shop in the rue des Images (Lange Beeldekensstraat). He lived in poverty and ate poorly, preferring to spend the money Theo sent on painting materials and models. Bread, coffee and tobacco became his staple diet. In February 1886 he wrote to Theo that he could only remember eating six hot meals since the previous May. His teeth became loose and painful. In Antwerp he applied himself to the study of colour theory and spent time in museums—particularly studying the work of Peter Paul Rubens – and broadened his palette to include carmine, cobalt blue and emerald green. Van Gogh bought Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts in the docklands, later incorporating elements of their style into the background of some of his paintings. He was drinking heavily again, and was hospitalised between February and March 1886, when he was possibly also treated for syphilis.
I started reading Stone's "Lust for Life" several years ago, and put it down after feeling weighed down with his description of the mineworker's lives in Belgium. While packing to move I sent the book to Goodwill.
In December 1878 Vincent Van Gogh arrived in the Borinage, a bleak coal- mining district near Mons. He was 25 years old. He’d failed to become an art dealer. He’d failed to become a schoolteacher. Drawing was just a hobby — an artistic career was the last thing on his mind. He’d come here as a preacher, full of evangelical fervour, yet he proved a failure at that too. The problem was, he was far too pious. He gave away everything he owned. These miners didn’t know what to make of him. They called him ‘the Christ of the coal mines’. After six months, he was fired. With nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, during the next 18 months Vincent taught himself the rudiments of draughtsmanship, anatomy and perspective.
I saw a painting by Van Gogh in London in '98 or so, and while I had heard of Van Gogh, obviously, I don't recall seeing one his paintings before then. I walked into the museum and there it was - bam - it hit me in the eye. I got up close to it and noticed that there was not a superfluous brush stroke in the whole painting. He put down every bit of color just where he wanted it and there you go. I was amazed. I had never seen such a thing before - and hell, in those days I couldn't tell an iris from an Irish. Anyway, I left that museum a fan of his work and now I even like his subject matter.
Amazing guy, and like E. A. Poe, a tragic figure who mainly got bad breaks.
and there it was - bam - it hit me in the eye.
Yes. All round, from never seeing such before, to fan, to tragic figure. The link to Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts was new to me.
It shows in his work, once you know to look for it.
When I turn a burl bowl or platter I have customers look closely at the swirly figure in the wood and then I say something like "Starry Night" and they can relate to how burls speak to me.
Ol' Vinny was amazing, and from not selling to having his work worth millions - just goes to show - never give up.
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