11/18/2021: Great News, Then Immersive Art

Christine sees her doctor in New York City for an annual visit to check her aneurysms. I refer to this as Christine getting her head examined. She gets an MRA exam late morning and then sees Dr. Gobin for the results in the afternoon. Her appointment was for 11/18/21 and so we planned a couple day trip to NYC.

We left home at about 7:00 a.m. I was so surprised to have a very foggy drive nearly all the way to the city. We traveled NY Route 17 along the Delaware River. It’s not unusual to have fog along the river, but we were in pea soup even away from the river. It made for a bit of a tense drive with poor visibility. But we got to the city in plenty of time to get Christine to her MRA appointment.

While she was having her test, I went off to find a subway station to purchase MetroCards. We were going to travel by public bus later in the day and I wanted to be prepared. I had to wander around a little to find a station since the map I was using was incorrect about a station at 42nd and 2nd Ave. But I found a station a few blocks away and successfully purchased MetroCards. We haven’t always had good experiences with machines and ticketing, so I was very happy to have MetoCards in hand.

I walked back to a small outdoor seating area across the street from the MRA location and shortly Christine arrived. We bought smoothies from a food truck and sat in the sun along York Ave. having lunch and enjoying our smoothies. I love people watching and this was an excellent spot to do just that. We then strolled around a few blocks and then made our way to Dr. Gobin’s office.

Kimberly, Dr. Gobin’s nurse practitioner, met with us. Unfortunately, Dr. Gobin scrubbed in to an operation and wouldn’t be seeing us. We love Dr. Gobin and were sad to not see him, but we also love Kim and we had a wonderful chat with her. She gave us the great news that all Christine’s aneurysms are very stable; no change since last year. Her coiled aneurysm is holding up well, the larger aneurysm hasn’t grown at all, and a very tiny aneurysm is inconsequential and hasn’t changed. So we were very, very happy to receive that news. I do dread waiting for the results of the MRA and the what to do question if something has grown. But I don’t have to think about that for another year.

Then off we went to check in to our hotel, the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central. It’s on 43rd St. near 2nd Ave. It only took a few minutes to get our car out of parking and get to the hotel. The bad thing about a car in NYC is the parking and the huge expense for parking. Hilton had a room plus parking deal and so the parking fee was included. That meant one in and one out, so we had to rely on other forms of transportation to get us around the city.

After resting a while in the hotel room, we then headed out for our adventure to see the Immersive Van Gogh exhibition at Pier 36. Christine had said a few weeks ago that she was interested in the show so we booked tickets. After studying buses and subways, we decided that the bus would get us the closest to Pier 36, which was all the way down at the southern tip of Manhattan. We rode the M15-SBS bus down 2nd Ave. and then over to Allen St. where we got off at Hester St. We then had about a 20 minute walk from there. The walk was great because we were in a part of the city that was interesting. We passed through actual neighborhoods, some in Chinatown, some in the Lower East Side. It was a lovely stroll.

We arrived at Pier 36 where we had to show proof of vaccination, had our handbags searched, needed to show ID and had our tickets examined at least 3 times. The popularity of the show is amazing, but precautions are obviously taken to ensure the safety of everyone.

So what is the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibition? It is an awe-inspiring journey into the incomparable universe of Van Gogh, one of the greatest artistic geniuses of the 19th century. It’s a way to explore his life, his work, and his secrets as never before through cutting-edge 360 degree digital projections, a one-of-a-kind VR experience, and a uniquely atmospheric light and sound show. This exhibition completely immerses you in the works of art around you, and you feel a shift in reality as you dive deep into the world created by Van Gogh’s brush strokes.

Pier 36 offers 75,000 square feet of space. The art is projected on 50 ft. tall walls, and sometimes floor, and is constantly moving. There were 3 rooms showing the same projections, but each room was different because in 2 of the rooms there were clusters of mirrors, or mirrored sculptures that also reflected the projections.

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We were sitting against the wall in one room and it was so cool to also see through the doorway into the largest room.

Van Gogh’s works burst forth in some instances or quietly emerged in others, but the constant incredible movement of the artwork that was almost dizzying. The sound track greatly enhanced the experience and I really loved the music. Luca Longobardi composed much of the music.

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This painting is one of my favorites. I think it looks a lot like a bridge in Binghamton with its series of arches.

Most of the time you just couldn’t believe your eyes. The paintings were so alive with movement and you were surrounded, literally immersed into the paintings.

These two videos, which will probably take a long time to load for your viewing, show just two snippets of what the immersive experience was like. There was constant movement of the artwork, and the music really helped convey the mood of what was being projected. (I’m not sure that the videos will play for you; the size exceeds what I can upload, but I hope they will eventually show – sorry if you are not able to view.)

One of the things that Van Gogh did to keep painting into the night was to place lighted candles on his hat brim. I found this to be extraordinary.

Vincent Van Gogh certainly was an interesting person, plagued with mental illness but incredibly productive in his short art career. In just 10 years he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterized by bold colors and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. Not commercially successful, he struggled with severe depression and poverty, eventually leading to his suicide at age thirty-seven. He painted 72 paintings during his final 70 days and then shot himself in the chest. The connection between madness and creativity is often a strong one, and in Van Gogh’s case, was quite intertwined. I have a greater appreciation for him, both the man and the artist.

After our wonderful experience at Immersive Van Gogh, we walked back to where I thought was a bus stop to take us back to the hotel. I was concerned that there was not a ticket machine there, not knowing that in the absence of a receipt from a ticket machine, we could just scan our MetroCards on the bus, we set off to look for another bus stop. It was a wonderful night with nearly a full moon, so the walk was actually quite nice.

We ended up near where we got off the bus and saw a pizza place, where we got slices to eat sitting outside the shop. We then found a bus stop with a ticket machine and we boarded the bus back to the hotel.

All in all, a really great day. I’m so happy about the MRA results and I’m happy Christine wanted to see the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit. It was a terrific experience.