I GO, YOU GO, WE ALL VAN GOGH

Dear faithful readers,

You have an opportunity to let your voice be heard, to get involved, to try to sway an author (that would be me).

I would love to write a biography for kids about a young woman named Jo, who was the wife of Theo van Gogh, the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh.  She was married for only two years when Theo passed away.     

Jo was left with a child, her husband's correspondence with Vincent, and hundreds of Vincent van Gogh's paintings. 

After reading her diaries (Diaries Jo Bonger (bongerdiaries.org) I discovered Jo was terribly depressed.  She poured over Theo's letters, hoping to feel her husband's spirit.  In doing so, she learned how deeply Theo cared about his older brother.  

Johanna van Gogh Bonger and son Vincent

She also began to understand Vincent's dark moods and passions.  She realized his genius.   

After perusing the letters, Jo realized her life's mission.  She felt Vincent's paintings needed to be hung in galleries and appreciated by the public.  Jo devoted her life to promoting the art Vincent van Gogh—this from a young woman with no art or business education.  And she succeeded!

So, here's where you fit in.  

I need help in with choosing an opening.  Will you please take time to vote on your favorite?  I am torn between all three.

You may respond in the comments or at my email address: Rlmrvos (at) gmail (dot) com 

Ready?  Get set.  Vote!

1.  In the days when artists shied away from dark colors, set up easels outside, and painted their impressions of nature, there lived a young woman who grew to believe in a man, an artist named Vincent Van Gogh.  

2.  Jo spreads the canvases on a table, runs her fingers over the brushstrokes and makes a few selections. She keeps the most brilliant, her favorites at home, for Jo van Gogh Bonger has a plan.

3.  Jo kneeled in a cemetery upon a tangle of ivy and whispered to her husband's stone, "What shall I do with 400 paintings that were painted by Vincent van Gogh?"

4.  When Jo was young, she loved to write and she put down her thoughts in a diary. She never guessed that one day her words would touch others, like the art of Vincent van Gogh.

Thank you for helping!  

✌ and ♥