When I was thinking of imagery for my website there was a picture that just jumped out at me. I knew it was the one. Vincent van Gogh’s image of a fictionalised French landscape after dark – the sky ablaze with twinkling stars and a brooding cypress tree in the foreground. So why this image, and what has it got to do with counselling?
Van Gogh is often described as an Expressionist. He painted a hyper-real version of what he saw in front of him, using texture colour and shape to evoke feeling as well as capturing a version of visual reality. As a man van Gogh was an open book and his paintings are usually a pure reflection of his state of mind. Very sadly van Gogh’s state of mind was often in turmoil. His struggles with mental health are well known. Much of his life was lived under the shadow of poverty, addition, paranoia and rejection. This was the lens through which he painted.
Yet starry night for me encapsulates what it is to live. A metaphor for the challenges and the beauty of life. The town lays sleepily and quietly at the base of the painting, there are lights and life there, but it is innocuous - almost at one with the hills surrounding it. The spire of the church and the lonely cypress tree guide the eye up to the real hero of the painting- the night sky, where stars are ablaze, the moon casts an ethereal light and there are sinuous mysterious swirling shapes reaching across the scene.
What are these peculiar shapes? They could be tracking the movement of the stars across the sky, they may mark the passage of time and the earth spinning, or they could represent the wind. But for me they are more than this – they are metaphors for complicated feelings, and raw emotions, seeking expression and reaching out trying to find a way. In this painting they are allowed to play out, to mingle with the stars, the piercing light of which can only represent hope. The sinister tree is the shadow of depression, lurking but not prevailing. The moon is brighter and offers comfort. The town represents everyday life, but it is significant that the action plays out in a higher plane – the sky can be taken to represent the mind, taking precedence over everything else beneath.
Counselling represents hope and a way through the darkness. Through it I encourage clients to feel their feelings, tackle complicated emotions and nurture their light. What could be more fitting image to represent this than Van Gogh’s starry night? To reach out and ask for the help you need and deserve please don't hesitate to get in touch.