The nephew came into the room quietly. After a moment he got twitchy and put his head down shoulders up. I asked him what was up? He finally asked - why do you have that horrible, ugly, dark painting on your wall? That took me totally by surprise for I look at Goya's View of Toledo as a lovely sunny picture. It's just a print by the way. Yes, it has dark greens and grays in it but dark, no. So I explained to him what I saw. -See! It has sun coming through those billowing clouds and there's washerwomen at the river in the gorge below the town doing their chores in the newly emerged sunshine. The stones of the city glow. The radiance from the clouds is miraculous. This picture makes me happy. It makes me feel at home.
He looked dubious or skeptical perhaps circling his way from the painting then slouching out of the room. He was around age 11, I think. I just couldn't imagine why he thought it was dark and ugly.
On thinking of this episode later I realize it's a good thing to take a second look at what's around you seeing it from another view. Sometimes we are so wrapped up in our own views we forget that other people don't feel the same emotions we feel when we look at something. They have different references that come from their own experiences. My nephew was adopted from Guatemala when he was five or six. While he did have a mother who loved him I'm told he ran the streets wild. She chose to make an adoption plan for him. She had many more children some who were also adopted out to the United States. I don't know if I'm correct at why he thought this painting had such a visceral reaction for him but I think he equated happy things with blue sky and bright colors. I also expect that dark greens and grays held not so good memories for him.
Perhaps what we need to do is to seek out the why or how people are thinking. Discover the differences. Feel what they may feel.
I wonder if the nephew still thinks View of Toledo is a horrible, ugly, dark picture at age 33?
