Van Gogh's The Starry Night

The Starry Night holds a great deal of personal significance and past experience to me. Not only was a copy of it pout in my room as a child, but at some point in elementary school I painted a copy of my own. What struck me then was the strange brown tower-like structure on the left side at the top, watching the city lights from afar as if they somehow mirrored the starlight. Now looking at the painting, it is obvious that although the same blue pervades both city and sky, the way Van Gogh paints the stars is entirely distinct in itself. While their light is progressively brighter as one looks toward the middle, each star has it's limit of light output, like orbs of energy whose strength is limited. I believe this is an expression of the emptiness of the night sky, with its points of extreme lightness and darkness, provided by the night's vast space. Its extensive use of blue in both the sky and ground expresses the sky's enveloping nature.