I couldn’t help but notice van Gogh’s works, namely the numerous ones that were of sunflowers. There were a number of them, many capturing different vantage points of the same flora: sunflowers in dark lighting, sunflowers in the sun; withering cut sunflowers, field of sunflowers, etc. There was a clear fixation on the flower; and some might have looked at his repetitive renditions and thought it to be a manifestation of his mania (which he did struggle with). But I recognized something else–perhaps I could call it the “art within the art”–that being, the art of practice.

This world is filled with so many things. Of course, there’s the joyous and the fascinating, the wondrous and the awe-inspiring. But there’s also a lot of the difficult, less-sparkly things as well–certainly more than any one of us even take into consideration on a daily basis. And these days, I can’t help but to think about all the heavy moments that a person can see during their lifetime.