When Life Gives You Lemons, Paint A Demon: Finding Solace In Goya’s Darkness

I've recently become a total art geek. Yeah, I know it sounds pretentious, but it was that or start collecting NFTs, and that felt like throwing money into a bonfire full of apes.

So, I watched a documentary about Francisco de Goya. You know, the guy who started as a royal portrait painter and ended up as, like, Spain's answer to Tim Burton after a really bad week.

They found one of his paintings, "Ghostly Vision," hidden for almost a century. I love how you can just find a painting after 100 years and be like, "Oops! Did we have this in the closet the whole time? In between the Christmas decorations and Grandma's old poncho?"

Apparently, Goya painted that thing super fast, completely without sketches, like he'd had a nightmare after eating too many tapas and just went "¡Vamos!" straight onto the canvas.

There's something about that painting that just sticks with you. A demon, a screaming crowd, some little dude on the left who looks like he was just trying to deliver a pizza and accidentally stumbled into a nightmare.

But it was probably just his way of saying, "Hey, I'm deaf, war-damaged, and tired of aristocratic broads demanding I paint them skinnier."

True story: Goya went deaf after an illness, and after that, his art got noticeably darker.

The scholars' theory is that Goya 'didn't want anyone to see the painting.' Which is exactly how I feel every time I post something on Instagram at 3:17 AM and then regret it for exactly 24 hours and 17 minutes.

So, if you're feeling stressed, tired of the world, surrounded by demons, think of Goya. He went deaf, saw the worst sides of humanity, painted a demon in a dressing gown, and called it art.

And you know what? He became immortal in the process. Who knows? Maybe your next panic attack is just the beginning of a career in the Prado Museum.

Francisco de Goya

The Great Goat by Francisco

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