After reading countless chivalric romance novels, the Spanish golden age fictional character Don Quixote decides to become a knight-errant to revive chivalry. In a self-proclaimed quest he tries to woo Luscinda, a beautiful woman, by attacking a windmill. He fails and his farm-hand, or squire, Sancho Panza gets into trouble. This series of paintings and a poem serves as an abstract response to issues that arise with romanticizing the past and the travails and contradictions of imagining a better world.

After reading countless chivalric romance novels, the Spanish golden age fictional character Don Quixote decides to become a knight-errant to revive chivalry. In a self-proclaimed quest he tries to woo Luscinda, a beautiful woman, by attacking a windmill. He fails and his farm-hand, or squire, Sancho Panza gets into trouble. This series of paintings and a poem serves as an abstract response to issues that arise with romanticizing the past and the travails and contradictions of imagining a better world.

 The madness and magic he believed was his reality  “Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle,The cow jumped over the moon.The little dog laughed to see such fun,And the dish ran away with the spoon.Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle,Quixote fought with an enchanted moor.Luscinda was lost to the duke’s son,And Pancho remained a balloon.Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle,The magic was over too soon.He still tilts at windmills at the break of dawn,And the sane madman was labeled a goon.”-Akshita Gandhi