Secondary Sources

As stated in some of my other posts, I chose Vincent van Gogh's painting The Starry Night as my primary source. It is one of his greatest masterpieces and I think there is a lot of information that can be extracted from it.
Secondary Sources:
Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings - Various authors
The Skies of Vincent van Gogh - Charles A Whitney

These sources (along with probably 1 or 2 more) will allow me to expand my theory about the emotion of van Gogh's art. They will give me information on his art's emotion and how this emotion can be found in other works. These sources will also give me a look into van Gogh's personal life which I believe has a strong link to his art since he often used his emotion to create his masterpieces.

Distinguishing claims vs evidence can be difficult sometimes. They are both very similar except that claims are assertions without any factual support while evidence is an undisputable fact. Obviously, one would want evidence to be able to prove a point or at least be credible. This is an important difference because just stating claims will get you nowhere in an argument. Statements that can't be backed up are nothing more than lines of text that take up space on the page.
In the case of my own academic writing, this distinguishment can be the difference between a research paper and a fiction paper. I could make claims about my writing all day and not get anywhere. In order to make sure they are using credible facts, one must be sure that they clearly explain the evidence and show how it relates to the topic at hand. This is very important when dealing with secondary sources so that the link between the topic and the evidence is seamless.

ARP Primary Source

I plan on working on Vincent van Gogh's painting The Starry Night for the analytical research project. It is one of my favorite paintings and I think there is a lot to be said about both the work and van Gogh's reaction to his work. He painted it in 1889 with oil on canvas and it depicts the view he had from his room in southern France.  He actually painted it from memory during the day time which is funny since it's a night time painting. The emotional van Gogh said a lot through his art even though he was often upset with his own work. I'm looking forward to analyzing the painting and comparing it to today's art scene.

One of the most striking parts of the painting is the swirls and lights he created the sky out of. It gives the sky a greater resemblance to the universe and the swirling multitude of galaxies that it contains. A fair amount of the painting is also taken up by the tree outside his window which has some sort of meaning that I'm sure I'll find more about as the research continues. My favorite part about the piece is probably how he used the blue for almost everything. It give the painting a calming effect and I think that it is undoubtedly one of his best works.