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In 125 years, millions of people have looked at this painting. No one really saw it until recently.

Van Gogh saw something it took scientists another 100 years to see.

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Van Gogh never got to enjoy his own historic success as an artist (even though we've been able to imagine what that moment might have looked like). But it turns out that those of us who have appreciated his work have been missing out on some critical details for more than 100 years.

I'm not easily impressed, OK?

I know Van Gogh was a genius. If the point of this were "Van Gogh was a mad genius," I would not be sharing this with you.

But I found this and I thought, "Oh, what a vaguely interesting thing." And then I got to the part about the Hubble Space Telescope, and, let me tell you: Mind. Blown.

We've got the set up here, but you have to watch the video for the full effect. It's all the way at the bottom.

Get this: Van Gogh was a pretty cool artist (duh), but as it turns out...

painting, science, psychotic

What’s the truth behind when you take off an ear?

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...he was also A SCIENTIST!*

*Pretty much.

Here's the story.

While Van Gogh was in an asylum in France, after he mutilated his ear during a psychotic episode*...

(*Or, and I'd like to thank the entire Internet for pointing this out, there's a theory that his friend Paul Gauguin actually cut off his ear, in a drunken sword fight, in the dark. The more you know!)

science, premonition, predictions

Animated a thinking one-eared Van Gogh.

All Van Gogh GIFs via TED-Ed.

...he was able to capture one of science's most elusive concepts:

~~~TURBULENCE~~~

research, studied, proof, genius

Animated "Starry Night."

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turbulence, fluid dynamics, energy cascade

Turbulence expressed through art.

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Although it's hard to understand with math (like, REALLY HARD), it turns out that art makes it easy to depict how it LOOKS.

So what is turbulence?

Turbulence, or turbulent flow, is a concept of fluid dynamics where fluid movements are "self-similar" when there's an energy cascade — so basically, big eddies make smaller eddies, and those make even smaller ones ... and so on and so forth.

It looks like this:

figures, explanation, education, community

Pictures explain science.

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See? It's easier to look at pictures to understand it.

Thing is, scientists are pretty much *just* starting to figure this stuff out.

reference, research, wisdom

Animation of referencing art to science.

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Then you've got Van Gogh, 100 years earlier, in his asylum, with a mutilated ear, who totally nailed it!

illumination, luminance, pulsing

Science studying Van Gogh.

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The folks who noticed Van Gogh's ability to capture turbulence checked to see whether other artists did the same. Most impressionists achieved " luminance" with their art (which is the sort-of *pulsing* you see when you look at their paintings that really shows what light looks like).

But did other artists depict turbulence the way Van Gogh did?

NOPE.

The Scream, historical, popular, famous

Animated “The Scream."

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Not even "The Scream" could hold a candle to Van Gogh!

technology, star turbulence, sky, astronomy

Capturing concepts of nature.

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Even in his darkest time, Van Gogh was able to capture — eerily accurately — one of nature's most complex and confusing concepts ... 100 years before scientists had the technology to observe actual star turbulence and realize its similarity to fluid turbulence mathematics as well as Van Gogh's swirling sky. Cool, huh?

Watch the video below to learn even more:

This article originally appeared on 11.14.14

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Artist's unusual techniques and tools mesmerize viewers as he paints magical scenes

The Jay Lee painting tutorial already has 184 million views. People can't look away!

Photo by Anna Kolosyuk on Unsplash

Jay Lee's popular painting tutorials make painting seem easy.

Watching someone create a piece of art can be a fascinating experience even when using traditional methods, but when an artist utilizes unique tools and techniques, it's all the more mesmerizing. (Have you seen the guy who creates huge, hyperrealistic drawings with just a basic Bic ballpoint pen? Absolutely amazing.)

Then, when you add an element of soothing sounds on top of it—such as Bob Ross' calm voice and wholesome commentary, for example—watching art come to life becomes an almost meditative experience.

Enter Jay Lee, a painter who has grown a huge following on YouTube with his wordless painting tutorials. Lee's techniques are unconventional from the get-go, as he often starts his paintings by applying streaks and globs of paint directly on the canvas. As he blends the paint with calming instrumental music in the background, you can start to see the beginnings of a background take shape.

He also pulls in various unconventional tools to create different effects, such as crumpled-up aluminum foil, batches of cotton swabs rubber-banded together, sprigs of pine, forks, hair combs and more. He does use traditional paintbrushes as well, but the combination of tools he uses creates interesting textures while saving tons of time.

In fact, people can follow his tutorials and create their own paintings surprisingly quickly. Watch this scene of a couple walking in the rain in the fall he created in just 10 minutes (with very little speeding up or skipping over steps):

It's amazing to watch the painting emerge as he works.

Jay Lee's impressionist style leaves a great deal of room for individuality, yet his tutorials are so simple to follow. My teen daughter has boosted her confidence in her artistic abilities by painting along with his videos, as they are quick and easy to do with impressive results.

Watch this painting of a man with his dog in a golden field to see how Jay Lee uses a hair comb to create blades of grass. So simple, yet so effective.

Doesn't it make you want to paint? Doesn't it make you believe you can paint?

Jay Lee's channel has tutorials using acrylic paints, like these ones, and watercolor painting tutorials as well. With watercolor, too, he utilizes various tools to create cool effects. For instance, this simple fall tree is made using cooking paper (or parchment paper) and cling film (or plastic wrap). Again, so simple, but so effective.

Feels like time to go dust off the old watercolor paints that have been sitting unused in our basement to try this out. It's a wonderful thing to watch an artist work and say to yourself, "Hey, that looks like something I could actually do," when so often it's the opposite.

If you enjoy the zen-like relaxation of watching Bob Ross videos or want to actually try creating some cool paintings yourself, check out the Jay Lee Painting channel on YouTube. Definitely worth your time, even just for a 10-minute meditation.

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Don't worry, the new Netflix Bob Ross documentary doesn't ruin Bob Ross for us

Netflix/YouTube

Few people in the public eye have been as universally beloved as Bob Ross, especially across multiple generations. The first time my husband and I shared "The Joy of Painting" with our kids, they were almost instantly mesmerized. Just as I had remembered from my own childhood, Ross's calm voice and "happy little trees" commentary as he painted felt almost like a form of therapy.

So naturally, when Netflix announced the release of a new documentary titled "Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed," people (me, I am people) freaked out a bit.

With a title like that, how could you not? Bob Ross is up there with Fred Rogers and Steve Irwin in the "pure, wholesome, and untouchable" category, and even just seeing the words "betrayal" and "greed" so close to his name is enough to make a fan plug their ears and yell, "Na na na na, I can't hear youuuuu!"

But fans needn't worry. The betrayal and greed referred to in the title aren't about Bob Ross himself, but rather the key players in the management of his business after his death.

If you're looking for a purely feel-good film about Bob Ross, this isn't really it. Thankfully, you won't walk away with a tarnished view of the man himself—the most "scandalous" thing you might learn is that he permed his hair to get that famous 'fro. But many people are walking away feeling angry and frustrated over the way his art and name have been handled by the Kowalski family who manages them. You'll still love Bob Ross as much as ever, but you might feel some not-so-happy little feelings about Bob Ross, Inc.

The documentary was produced by actress Melissa McCarthy and her filmmaker husband Ben Falcone, and the couple spoke with NPR about some of the making the film and some of the legal perils they faced.

Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed | Official Trailer | Netflixwww.youtube.com

"Bob certainly wanted it to go to — most of the business — to his son," McCarthy said. "He left it to his son and his brother. And very quickly, that was kind of taken through litigation. And because at the time [Bob's son] Steve was so young, Bob thought, you know, let's have an adult still guiding him with where he's going to take this company. ... But he didn't get to take hold of it at all."

The crux of the film is how Ross's business partners, the Kowalskis, have held a tight grip on Bob Ross, Inc. and how Ross's son, Steve, has allegedly been shut out of his father's business. Getting to the bottom of it all posed a challenge, however, as apparently few of the people involved wanted to speak to the filmmakers.

"Everyone's afraid of getting sued," Falcone said. So that's neat.

Now the Kowalskis have responded to the accusations in the film with a statement defending their role in the business they started in partnership with Bob Ross. They wrote, in part:

Bob Ross Inc. never pursued or threatened legal action against Steve Ross, and, in fact, no one at Bob Ross Inc. heard from Steve Ross for almost twenty years, until 2017 when Steve filed suit against the company without any prior communication.
Bob Ross may not have shared the inherent structural features of his company with family and friends – which are very common in small private companies – resulting in many of the unsubstantiated accusations made in the film.

They also claim that the merchandise they sell with Bob Ross's image on it is meant as a way to share the late painter's message of positivity. "Bob Ross Inc.'s hope is that items bearing Bob's likeness and messages prompt smiles as they remind people of the love of painting Bob shared with all," they wrote.

At the very least, we can all still agree that Bob Ross himself was a national treasure whose love of painting and positive outlook were genuine. Nobody mess with the legacy of the man himself, please. None of us could handle that. Let us keep our happy little memories of him pure and untarnished.


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Walking past this artist's portraits will blow your mind, as one face transforms to another

Sergi Cardenas/Instagram

Optical illusions are always fun to play with, and the paintings of Sergi Cadenas are no exception.

If you walk up to one of Cadenas's portraits from one direction, you'll see a face. If you walk up to it from the opposite direction, you'll also see a face—but a totally different one. Sometimes it's a young face that ages as you walk from one side to another, like this one:

Or this one:

Sometimes it's a face that has the...um...face part removed.

And sometimes it's a face that simply becomes another face.

He can even turn Marilyn Monroe into Albert Einstein.

You can see that the painting is created in verticle 3-D lines of some sort and surmise that the two different faces exist on opposite, angled sides of those lines. But how? It almost feels like magic, the way the paintings transform as you walk past them.

This image of one of Cadenas's paintings up against a mirror lets you see both sides of it at once, which is super cool.

What's particularly impressive about Cadenas's art is that he is a self-taught artist who didn't even become a painter until he was 30. He got the idea for his dual-image oil paintings from "flip images" he'd seen when he was a kid. He creates his works in his home studio in small village in the Catalonia region of Spain and uses friends, family, and neighbors as models. It takes him about a month to complete one of his paintings.

How does he create the dual images? He fills an icing bag with painter's paste and uses a decorator tip to create verticle relief lines with two 45 degree angles. (Watching a neighbor who was a pastry chef gave him the idea.) Then he sketches out the basic facial features with pencil before painting the different faces from the two different sides.

"You have to get used to the lines being broken and not continuous on the canvas," Cadenas said in an interview with dw.com. But other than that, it's like any other painting. He completes one side, then completes the other.

"It's the magic, the surprise effect that I like best," he said.

Much of Cadenas's work hangs in people's private collections, though some museums and galleries such as the Galeria Jordi Barnadas gallery in Barcelona have some of his pieces on display.


Artist Makes Portraits That Age As You Move Around Themwww.youtube.com

Such great creativity and innovation, not to mention sheer talent. Here's to the artists who enrich our world with their incredible work.

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