by Spencer Norton – 2nd place 2023
Van Gogh is the ultimate representation of artistry and passion. He was so passionate about his art that he made it even though he never made any money from it. Van Gogh’s level of passion inspires me, and I hope that I too would be able to nourish the artistic parts of my identity throughout my life even if that meant that no one else would care or see it.
Artist’s Statement
When forced to face different aspects of my identity, the clearest one to jump out was my identity as an artist. There are many different things that define who I am but the one that makes me feel the most unique is my artistry. This is what inspired me to use an image of Van Gogh.
Van Gogh is the ultimate representation of artistry and passion. He was so passionate about his art that he made it even though he never made any money from it. Van Gogh’s level of passion inspires me, and I hope that I too would be able to nourish the artistic parts of my identity throughout my life even if that meant that no one else would care or see it.
However, there is a lot of tension between this artistic passion with which I identify and the more prideful urge to gain recognition for it. Disney, at least in the modern day, seems to epitomize this type of selling out. Many current Disney employees were once aspiring artists who have created beautiful art. There’s something that these artists lose when they join Disney that translates to the art that they make. Disney movies often feel uninspired and controlled rather than feeling like a passion project. However, working for Disney almost guarantees money and fame. This isn’t to say there isn’t passion and creativity at Disney. However there is a lack of individualized artistry.
Many artists have to face this tension in some capacity. While I’m nowhere near the level of an artist as Van Gogh and I’ve never come close to selling out to a company like Disney, this is something that I’ve faced in my life many times.
In order to represent this struggle I remixed this painting of Van Gogh depicting him cutting off the ear to his classic Mickey Mouse hat. There are two different meanings that come from this image for me. The first is the representation of my urge to “cut out” the “Disneyfying” side of my identity and refuse to sell out for money or fame. While to me this is the ideal, there’s still blood. It’s painful to accept the potential of no one seeing your art while also accepting yourself as a true artist. The second meaning comes from the creation of the image itself, which could be interpreted as an exemplification of Disneyfication. It is a true historical event that Van Gogh chopped off his ear, but the Disneyfied version of this story—this remixed painting—feels tacky and passionless. Disney commonly remakes and remixes old art, and it generally sucks out the artistry and meaning of the original. While it may be profitable, the quality and artistry is diminished. This is relevant to Danah Boyd’s observation in The Social Lives of Networked Teens that “the ability to understand how context, audience and identity intersect is one of the central challenges people face.” While I like to think that artistry is a part of my identity, the audience (or lack of audience) challenges that by tempting me to produce popular content rather than passionate art. Creating a Disneyfied version of Van Gogh’s artistic self portrait in this way illustrates this tension that I feel within my own artistic identity.
Head Editor
Gigi Valentine Knapp
Project Manager
Spencer Norton
Section Editor
Anna Lo Russo
Faculty Review
Benjamin Thevenin
