Security Officer, José Colon: Van Gogh had a way of taking, portraiture from something only rich people can do and taking it down to a level of, “Hey, my neighbor can be this.”
My name is José Colon. I work for the Museum of Modern Art Security Department. We're here in front of Joseph Roulin, The Postman by Vincent van Gogh. It's a portrait of one of his friends. Vincent had a hard time making friends, you know, he always wanted to be a portrait as artist, but no one would sit for Vincent.
The postman, he met him at the station where he sent letters to his brother, Theo. So they got this relationship going. When Vincent had a hard time, he would write letters to Theo, “Hey, your brother's fine.”
When you talk to people today, they don't write letters anymore. Now, I was in the military and letters were one of the most important things you waited for. If you are underweight for six months, you waiting for that letter. The postman reminds me of that, and I always treasure it.
It's always about emotions and feelings, you know? What was he thinking about the postman at the time? What were they talking about? For all we know he could have been painting him at a cafe having wine. What a relationship they had.