...Isolation within a desolate, bankrupt and wasteful landscape...
Both Vincent Van Gogh and T.S. Eliot's works reflect the nature of struggle and triumph of the artist's quest for true knowlege toward self-realization. The artist, like a magician, attempts to conjure 'truth' within the deep and dark recesses of his soul. Ironically, through the trick of gods, it is exactly there where he discovers his own falseness and personal 'demons' . He learns he is only a construct of 'ego' - living within his own corruption and that of his external world. He views this identity as mere illusion striving to exist withiin the shallow realm of false sentiment. As in the measurement of a compass that points toward both the North and True North - it is the schitzophrenic battle between the divided 'Self' .This schism uncovers the conflict and inner turmoil within his consciousness. Cunningly though, he is very much aware of the consequence of unleashing such 'colours' of these primal, undiluted passions i.e.,fear, anger,love, joy, hate, rage ect...Paradoxically, by this defiant and defining 'act of creation' , he declares 'Self' with absolute affirmation.Both artists convey the futility of life... within a desolate, bankrupt and wasteful landscape. It is this recurring theme that haunts the artiist's subjects, and which is characterized by a slow paced melancholy. However, this cynicism is ultimately betrayed through the artist's sense of aesthetic idealism and for his desire to attain perfection. He seeks hope through beauty, finds refuge within the calm, solace 'voice' amidst the confusion, and listens for the'music' within the stillness of his silence. Finally, within this self-imposed' exile', he sustains the slow burning embers of honest emotion which flicker the occasional concious scent of truth- and holds faith that this will one day unveil... shades of divinity.