LESLIE PARKE

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ARTIST ATTACKED BY BATS — IN HER SLEEP

Goya, "The Sleep of Reason"

 Last night I dreamed that I was attacked by bats. Of course it made me think of this etching by Goya.I looked up its meaning in Wikipedia:

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Spanish: El sueño de la razón produce monstruos) is an etching by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya. Created between 1797 and 1799,[1] it is the 43rd of 80 etchings making up the suite of satires Los Caprichos.[2] Goya imagines himself asleep amidst his drawing tools, his reason dulled by slumber and bedeviled by creatures that prowl in the dark. The work includes owls that may be symbols of folly and bats symbolizing ignorance. The full epigraph for capricho No. 43 reads; "Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels."[4]

OK, I'm ready. Time to get to the studio.