Being in pain and delving into the process of making art is such a brutal way to make value of the process that we call expression. But what is art at the end of the day but just a soul throwing up its ache in multiple forms and colours?

This form of thought is what encourages being in pain, it's what makes the artist magnify the act of self-harm, as long as it is for a higher purpose, such as creating a masterpiece of art. These actions of suffering, the feelings of pain, can be seen in pieces like 'The Scream of Nature', or any of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings.

Knowing that Van Gogh suffered undermining from his community during his life, knowing that he swung between reality and deep, existential dread, reveals how he, along with most of history's most prolific artists, was deeply troubled. Van Gogh, like many other great artists, constantly found himself in the circle of pain, and he used it as a tool to bring beauty and life to this world.

Due to this struggle, Van Gogh got stuck in a wagon of denial that dug him deeper and deeper the older he grew. He brought this struggle out in his paintings, the visions so real and vivid. Art critics revelled and decided to name Van Gogh's unique style as a revolutionary technique that would change the landscape of painting forever.

Van Gogh's 'Irises' was so shiny that the flowers seemed wavy from the viewer's perspective, pain and sorrow jumping towards you from the canvas. Van Gogh's 'Starry Nights' were moving rainy waterfalls in the sky, as if he looked at them with teary eyes and portrayed that from his eyesight to us.

The flowers in 'Irises' are out there, out from the canvas. It pierces the mind and soul, showing the ache that breaks the time and place notion, the dimensions of the 3D effect making the masterpiece come to life. 'The Starry Night' is a misunderstood piece of art. Colours, shapes, sense of motion, it is almost otherworldly. Van Gogh once said, "I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream." This quote sums up these two works. They are images straight from the canvas that is the dreamworld. Dreams in their vague sense are the manifestation of our feelings about real life events while sleeping, and Van Gogh's paintings depict his reality, the world seen by him, the world created by him.

The impasto technique consists of mixing oil paint with the finger as it leads to make textures out of simple things and gives shape to all of the angles presenting lively movement. This technique eventually adds a sculptural value which might give the viewer the impression that an artwork is moving when the viewer moves forwards or towards the painting. This is the technique that was mastered by Van Gogh, as seen in 'The Starry Night'. The sky and the stars seem to be shifting, pulsating, demonstrating the wavy, moving impression that the technique provides.

Considering Van Gogh's paintings come from the 19th century, it makes one wonder how our perception of art has changed over the years, how art's effects and its other visualisation tools continue to evolve and advance as time progresses. Art goes beyond geometrical senses and artistic tools. It truly is amazing how oil paint thrown onto a canvas can portray such tangible and visualised sorrow, sorrow visible to any person, from the common man to the art enthusiast.

The colours choice comes from the sense of creativity and spontaneity. When the paintings are so purely honest and sensual, as are Van Gogh's, it certainly does speak to everyone's heart. Art, at its core, makes one wonder, think, make up one's own reality by depicting madness, or simply makes one accept one's reality through accepting reason. Art swings between madness and reason, and most of the time, it is a fine line between the two. As Rumi once said, "Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure." We identify aspect by the existence of its opposite. Light is light because dark exists. Beauty is eternal, and art will be depicting life's beauty for as long as humanity is alive.

I wonder if Van Gogh had a perspective that related to Sufism. Whenever he felt pain, felt unappreciated, had spiritual ruins, he painted. He was brutally amazed by the natural beauty of the world that surrounded him. The flowers and their shapes and forms, the deep skies and their shimmering stars. In Sufism, appreciating the beauty of the universe has been the main aspect of the body of religious practice, worshiping God within its divine manifestations.

The beauty that shines and glows in front of your face like diamond in a starry night. The most genius technique has been used in 'The Starry Night', the swinging of the brush on each star that gives motion to the sky, the way the brush moves across the canvas. It all makes the viewer think this painting is representing a calm night, but it isn't. Or perhaps it is.

The movement of the emotions felt in Van Gogh's work is like a windmill of colours, the stars melting in circles like a Sufi dancer swinging across the floor, the sky dancing on his ruins, so slowly and magically, swaying with ease like an Andalusian lady floating in flamingo. For Van Gogh, perhaps it was his own tears that he was seeing in the sky that night when he painted the beloved masterpiece.

The trilogy of art, pain, and self-value are very intertwined, and it should be broken as far as I'm concerned. Art is to create, and human being cannot bear the pain of being in a "creator” mode. They may get recognition the opposite of what Van Gogh had, but the sorrow that comes with the act of creation is often times too devastating for the human heart to handle. Perhaps art is needed for human existence. Perhaps that is the very reason we as humans are alive and on this earth. What we do know, is that the magic of the tortured artists, such as Van Gogh, will continue to live in our hearts and minds forever, and their creations will never, ever die.