This Paranormal Life - #304 The Woman in The Rain - A CURSED Painting that CAME TO LIFE

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

We've all seen art before that's so vivid and beautiful you feel like it could JUMP right off the canvas... well in 1996, a young Ukrainian artist created a painting so terrifying that those who owned it claimed at night it would come to life. This is the story of 'The Woman in the Rain' painting.This Paranormal Life is sponsored by BetterHelp.Go to betterhelp.com/paranormallife to get started today using code "paranormallife".Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Louis Blatherwick Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Would I recognize my own skull? Do candles feel pain when we burn them? Answers to these questions and more on This Paranormal Life! Hello everyone and welcome to This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy paranormal podcast where every week, as I said, it's weekly, that we investigate a brand new paranormal tale every week and come down to a conclusion weekly to decide whether or not it is weekly or I think I'm getting this wrong somehow. I think my brain's a little scrambled today. Did I mention it was weekly, the podcast? Did you have coffee this morning? I had four. Okay. That's not a joke. That's bad because it's very early. I went to a cafe where they have refillable coffee. So if you finish, you can actually get another one for free.

Something that isn't going to sound crazy to our American listeners, but in the UK, that's knocking futz. You don't find that in cafes over here. Okay, so you're telling me you abused this privilege? I wanted to get my money's worth, that's for sure. Didn't your mother pay for the coffee? Irrelevant! Who paid for the coffee? You got her my money's worth, that's for sure. Didn't your mother pay for the coffee? Irrelevant! Who paid for the coffee?

You got her her money's worth. I wanted to get her her money's worth because she's a f***ing angel. Sorry, you got you her money's worth. And she deserves to have her son treated like the prince that he is. Sorry, I'm getting off track. I think we should just push on with the podcast here. Why don't you go ahead and tell the audience how often the show comes out? Because I'm not sure they gathered that from the intro.

Silence! The show is weekly. It's a weekly show where every week we investigate. I'm doing it again. Every week we investigate a paranormal tale and come to a conclusion as to whether or not it truly is paranormal. My name is Roy Powers. I'm borderline tweaking off of coffee right now. But across from me sits the other half to my coin, the underside to my muffin.

I couldn't think of a second analogy. Kit Greer. I'm taking that mug off you. I'm taking that mug off you right now. I'm doing good over here. I'm a little bit more sensitive to caffeine than Rory is. I'm a little bit more sensitive to caffeine than Rory is. So I'm sitting here pretty on one decaf, on one decaf, and I've got palpitations. Right, right. I'm struggling. I'm barely holding it together.

So the quicker we can get through this podcast, the better. Yeah, we've said it before on the podcast that I'm the kind of person that I could shotgun a Monster Energy drink and then fall asleep in the same minute. Caffeine affects Kit slightly differently. You become more like a junkie who hasn't had a hit in a couple of days. I start tweaking. I start scratching my neck, looking around. Yeah, yeah. Teeth, awful. Skin, awful. Kind of a meth. One Starbucks latte, and I look like I've been on meth for 25 years.

Kit once smelt a cup of decaf, and I didn't see him for four days. No one even had the time to tell him there wasn't caffeine in it, and he escaped. So we can't really take him anywhere near, even just passing a Starbucks. We'll send him into a frenzy. I tried a friend's hard kombucha once and went into a coma. It wasn't even the alcohol. It was the minor caffeine quantity. But today we're not here to talk about Kit's sensitivity towards caffeinated beverages. We are here to investigate the paranormal like we are every week.

And Kit, today is no exception. Because like we've done on previous cases, we're about to investigate a little thing known as a cursed object. We've talked about them before on the podcast. You know, your cursed ancient Egyptian mummies, your cursed dolls. We covered James Dean's cursed car, little bastard. There are so many cursed objects out there in the world. But today's case is different, because the cursed object we're investigating this week might just be alive. Huh? That's right, Kit. But before we dive into today's episode, how about a quick word from today's sponsors? Today's story starts in Ukraine, 1996. A young artist named Svetlana Telets had just graduated from the prestigious Grekov Odyssey Art School and was

excited to begin her new career as a professional artist. Not to derail us too early in the podcast, but I've always wondered, what do people do at art school all day? Art. Surely I can't be the only person who's wondered this, that people talk about going to art school and I'm like, that's cool and all. What's the exam?

A painting? Are the lectures a song? A thought? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, as a guy who went to film school, I can tell you right now, they smoke a lot of weed.

That's 65% of it. Yeah, I do love that idea. I think probably art school is a lot harder and more meticulous than we think. Oh, they like to say so. They like to talk about it because they carry around those fucking giant portfolios. Bro, I'm slammed. I'm slammed. They're chain smoking like they work on Wall Street. I'm fucking slammed. I'm stressed. Don't talk to me. I got like three lilies to paint for tomorrow. Yeah. I haven't even done my homework yet, which was to watch a sunset. I'm freaking out, man. Look, I'm not bringing it down. I understand that it's high pressure and it's hard. I just don't understand it. To be fair, you know, me at film school, I thought it was going to be a lot of watching

movies, making movies. It is a lot of studying the history of the profession. Sure. Learning the tools of the trade, the different teachings of all the different methods of how to do it. I assume art is very similar. And art is more ambiguous even than film, you know, because that isn't just painting. That can be sculptures, watercolors, charcoals. Art is a big spectrum. So who knows? Maybe classes are a lot harder than we think. Well, Grekov Odyssey Art School is actually one of the oldest art schools in Ukraine. Cool.

It's given birth to many talented artists, and Svetlana was no exception. Now that she'd graduated, she was free to dedicate all of her time working solely on her craft, experimenting with different paints, textures, and mediums. But instead of that zen-like creative life she had dreamed of, she was haunted. And by what, you may ask? She didn't even know. Huh? For the last six months, Kit, she had said that she'd felt a strange presence around her,

as if someone or something was watching her at all times. Jesus, I think she needs to lay off the bong hits, just at least till she wraps up her degree path. I'm going to assume it's pretty hard to make chill, cool art when it feels like there is a night demon hanging over your shoulder 24-7. Yeah, I can only imagine. I don't really know how to take this information, which I imagine is exactly what her parents and loved ones said when she told them that. I have sympathy for it, though. I mean, that sounds just dreadful.

I mean, you and me both know Rory as having, you know, this paranormal life, of course, is just a purely scientific investigative job. But we have done creative things in the past. And that's kind of rule numero uno. That's why creatives smoke so much weed is because, generally speaking, you need to be pretty relaxed and in a good place. Pretty chill. To channel the divine muse and make something cool. Yeah.

It's tough doing this paranormal life because, you know, every week we have to deal with creepy, mysterious presences and strange creatures. And that's why I'm at my house and, you know, people are telling me to like do the dishes, clean the bedroom. And I'm like, you think I can do that with this demon hanging over my shoulders? I can't. I just have to play video games and eat Doritos. That's all I can do right now. Honestly, that's all I have bandwidth for. It's hard, man. It's hard is what I'm saying. The f***ed up thing is too,

is if by some miracle on a given week we don't feel like there's a demon hunting us, we're hunting it. We're out there looking for gargoyles and demons. We're the demon over their shoulder. There is not one day in my life I am not either hunting a demon or being hunted by a demon uh the really sad boring version of this for me is uh if i just even have an email to send or a phone call to make at some point during the day i can't relax or sit still for one second

i'm pacing my apartment like it's a prison cell stressed the f**k out because i gotta text someone back and i don't know what to say right this is the curse of the millennial yeah um the stress of having to call the bank at 3 p.m is the equivalent of being on death row yeah you're just sweating bullets i gotta get my gotta give myself like a pep talk and shit i'm like you got this man you got this you can do this and it's do do do do hello. Welcome to Santa slam it down. I couldn't do it man. I couldn't do it Dressed here so I get it look you have to be in the right state of mind Sometimes to be at maximum capacity and if you're a painter and you're having all these horrible negative thoughts You don't want that to come out in your art. Or maybe you do.

Maybe, Kit. You do. She struggled to deal with this horrible, looming feeling while also trying to create art. As time progressed, the feelings only got worse. Until one day, while sitting down in a fresh canvas, Svetlana decided to paint the feeling. So she gathered her brushes, her easel, and began to paint, not knowing where it was going to take her. Five straight hours passed, and the image was beginning to take shape. The creepiest part of all is that Svetlana said it felt like someone else was controlling her hand.

Okay. Oh, man. I think the stress is getting to her. When she finally stepped away from the painting, there was a woman staring back at her. This kit is the birth of the Woman in the Rain painting. I'm going to go ahead and tell you folks right here before we continue. This is one of the few paranormal stories that we've investigated on this podcast that has freaked me the f*** out. I first came across this story pretty late at night and I read all of the stories about this painting and what it had allegedly done to people.

And then it wasn't until the very end of that article where they were like, hey, by the way, here's the painting. And you're kind of like, all right, yeah, let's see this thing if it's going to freak people out this much. It's f***ing scary, dude. It's a real, I don't know. I had like a little moment looking at it. I swear I could hear horror violin strings in the background and me and this thing just locked eyes. It's properly terrifying. And you have to understand. It's looking at me now, by the way. It's on the iPad and it's looking at me now by the way it's on the ipad and it's looking at me now so i'm gonna scroll away you have to understand that rory has been doing this for so long this is like a 10th generation pizza this is like a 10th

generation pizza maker saying that he had a pizza that was actually he enjoyed and it was pretty good yeah we've cracked through the tough exterior built over decades. You know what scares me now? F***ing butterflies, children's birthday cakes, normal innocent s*** because I've seen so much nasty stuff that it doesn't do anything for me.

Until this, I saw something so paranormal I had to punch my MacBook Pro. I don't know. Do you want to see the picture now, or should we tell the story and then, like me, you can have the reveal of the woman in the rain? I'll let you choose which one you prefer. I think I need to see it now.

I think you built it up too much, and I need to see it now. Also, I'm a little scared and apprehensive to see it, so I feel like we need to just rip off the plaster and show me it. Okay, I think that's a good idea. Okay. Okay. Why are you guys doing so much? A single tear is running down Rory's eyes. I'm like, okay,

that's fine. I can't undo it. You can't unsee it, is all I'll say. I will preface this by giving a description to the people at home who haven't seen the picture just yet. Just so you know, the painting is of a sad woman with a long slender face outside in the rain. She's wearing all black, including a large black hat, and has a horrible, strange, hopeless expression on her face. The edges of her body are feathered and blurred, and there's long raindrops tumbling

to the ground all around her. Kit, with that description in mind, I'm going to show you a picture right now of the painting. All right, let's go. Oh, I don't like it. I don't even like touching it. All right, here it is. Holy! Okay. Wow. This feels like an impressive painting i don't know quite what i was expecting but um it's a lot more artistic like surreal it's not just like a picture of a real woman standing in the rain it's a bit more abstract i think is what i'm trying to say yeah it's got flavors of like um a modigliani or something like that which is is kind of, yeah, as Rory says, a little bit more abstract, a little bit more kind of unusual shapes.

It's definitely haunting. Don't look in her eyes, all right? Because I got lost in those for about 45 minutes. Her eyes, to be clear, I'm right in saying they're like downcast, aren't they? Yeah, they're kind of looking down. They're kind of barely open, looking down. She's essentially,

it's, I can't look away. I can't look away and I don't know if my head is broken now or my eyes are broken. It's really weird, isn't it? I really don't like it. I want to make it clear, I'm not doing a bit here.

This painting freaks me the f*** out. It's a good painting. It's a very good painting. It's stunning. Yeah, gorgeous. So that adds a little. Whoa, don't turn it towards me, brother. Whoa, okay. We're going to scroll past that.

I don't like it. I don't like it at all. It gives us a bit of realism to all this story. I'm going to be honest, if you showed me a terrible painting, I'd be like, okay, is any of this true? But that's a good-ass painting. Yeah. I mean, this is the nice thing about investigating cursed objects is the very least we know is the object itself is real and does exist. Yeah. I mean, this is the nice thing about investigating cursed objects is the very

least we know is the object itself is real and does exist. Yeah, 100%. Svetlana spent a month adding the extra details and finishing touches. And when it was done, she was strangely proud of her work. So she did what all artists do and decided to put it up for sale at a gallery. She had recently moved to a place called Vinnitsa, so she found a place to exhibit the strange painting, and waited patiently to see if a buyer was interested. Alright, see where this is going. If this thing doesn't fly off the shelves, we can't exactly be surprised. You made a depression painting Svetlana! We can't be surprised if it doesn't make people feel nice and cozy and yummy inside and makes them want

to put it in their kitchen. If Kit isn't surprised that this thing doesn't fly off the walls, imagine a surprise when it literally flies off the walls. This is a paranormal painting. Look, when we first saw it, we didn't like it, sure. But you do have a strange kind of attraction to it in like a morbidly curious kind of way. It's not like a picture of a f***ing butthole that you don't want to hang on your wall. It is art, you know? Also, I'm not giving credit to the kind of weirdos out there. You know, there could be some kind of Beetlejuice motherf***er walks in and he just loves it. Yeah, exactly.

You might be surprised to know, Kit, that the painting was sold quite quickly. But it wasn't long before it was returned. The first buyer was a businesswoman, well-dressed and obviously a person of great taste. Svetlana was thrilled that someone of such caliber was admiring her work. Wow, I really like this piece. What is it called? The Rain Woman, madame. I painted it myself. Hmm, I simply have to have it. Do you accept cash? And just like that, Svetlana Tellitz had sold her first painting and become a professional artist.

Hey, well done. But that joy was short-lived. Oh no. Less than two weeks later, Svetlana was startled awake by a loud knock on her front door. There at the entrance was the same woman who had purchased her painting. I said no refund. Get lost. The woman said, her painting. I said no refunds. Get lost. The

woman said, I'm sorry to disturb you so late, but I'm here to return your painting. You have to take it back. How did she get her address? How did she get her address? Svetlana's like, I shouldn't have put my f***ing address on the back of

the painting. The woman went on to say that ever since the painting had arrived in her home, she felt a strange presence in her house. She even took it off the walls and hid it in the back of her closet, but nothing worked. The feeling didn't go away. She said it was as if someone else was living in her apartment with her. Okay, that's a lot.

But we are seeing some kind of interesting through line here, because if we look back at the start of our story, Svetlana was saying that she felt a weight. Something's watching her. Yeah. And then she made a painting. And then Svetlana was feeling pretty good after making that painting. I wonder why?

It's almost as if the painting is cursed. Because whenever she accepted the cash, the feeling seemed to go away. But now someone else is feeling that feeling. So I don't want to jump the gun here, but the energy that Svetlana was feeling might be trapped in this painting. Exactly. There's a lot of theories about this painting and how it works. And we will talk about them later on in the episode. But this theory that you're proposing is one of the main ones. Did Svetlana capture and channel this fear of dread and insanity into a painting?

And now anyone who has the painting has the same feelings? Well of course Svetlana was confused and disappointed, but of course accepted the painting back. She wasn't too keen on holding onto it herself, for obvious reasons, so once again she put it up in a gallery in the hopes that a buyer would take it off her hands. And someone did. The second buyer was a young, smartly dressed man who took to the painting immediately. Ugh, this is pretty special. Are you the artist? Let's make a deal. Once again, the Rain Woman sold in a flash. But it wasn't out of the gallery for long, Kit. The painting was once again returned, and this time, the complaints were even more terrifying.

The man said that the woman in the painting had been following him into his dreams. Oh, that's going too far. That is absolutely going too far. too far. That is absolutely going too far. That's my happy place. Let me have my dreams at least. You know, do whatever you want in reality, but let me have my dreams. I like to imagine that this man's dreams usually revolve around him playing in the NBA. Right. And sitting courtside is the woman, the woman in black. He's like, damn, that's weird. He goes back into the changing rooms. LeBron is looking a little bit different than usual.

Yeah, the new Lakers uniform is kind of weird. It's more of a long black cloak and a tall hat. The man said, every night she appears and follows me like a shadow. Svetlana began to worry a little bit. The two people who had purchased the painting had suffered insomnia, nightmares, and felt the same dread that she had felt in the six months before painting the picture. What is going on here?

Can I just interject just with a little bit of kind of instinctual paranormal investigator wisdom? Okay. Because as I say, I don't know really anything about visual arts, but I do know that a painting is kind of never really finished. It's only finished as long as the artist has decided they're done with it. So it is then, I guess, finished by definition. Has Svetlana ever thought about maybe just... Just add a little smiley face. Give her a moustache.

Just add a smile. Give her a clown nose. It would be easy to do in post. I don't think the woman would like that. I think that might make her angry. Just, you know, close one of her eyes so she's winking. A little playful wink. Yeah.

It could be one of those things where you kind of... You're like, you know what? I'm going to give her googly eyes. I think that's kind of funny. Yeah, I think she'd like that. That's pretty cool. Anyway, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Head hits the pillow.

She's waiting for you with a baseball bat in the dream dimension. Do we know it's evil yet, though? I mean, okay, it's sure turning up Freddy Krueger style in dreams. Yeah. But does that mean it's evil? I guess not. I mean, the only thing that's followed me into my dreams was Hilary Duff as a child. And I don't think she's necessarily evil.

She's welcome anytime. Can I just say that? She hasn't been back in a while, Hilary. So I'm free. I'm free tonight actually if you want to hop in that would be chill that'd be awesome if you want to log on uh no you're right though we don't necessarily know that she's evil if anything she just seems kind of sad but i will say that you have spent a lot more time with this case and you seem to be uh quite nervous

about the woman and you said she was evil so she just freaks me out we're trending in a certain direction well svetlana wasn't giving up she still believed in the painting and wanted it to go to a good home so third time's a charm she put it back in the gallery hoping it would find its forever home but by this time word had spread about the painting of the woman in the rain mostly the fact that it tormented every owner to their breaking point but luckily the painting of the Woman in the Rain, mostly the fact that it tormented every owner to their breaking point. But luckily, the painting's next buyer was aware of the stories and didn't even seem to mind. Is this the haunted painting? Svetlana didn't know how to answer. Don't worry, I want it anyway. There isn't much that scares me. I don't think a painting will be able to interfere with my rest. Or my mind, for that matter.

Even with the warnings, the man made a generous offer. And once again, the painting was sold. But before Svetlana could even cash the check... What? The painting was back at her doorstep. Svetlana, even cash the check. What? The painting was back at her doorstep. Svetlana, we need to get cash up, sweetie. We need to get cash up. We need Venmo.

We need PayPal. We need no returns. We need... Hey, we need to... You're running a small business. I think this is... We need to start treating it like such. This is 1996.

I'm not sure a lot of those apps were available at the time. Make a sign! Make a sign that says, no refunds, all sales are final, sale items need a receipt. The third buyer was more f***ed up than the first two combined. His heart stopped the moment he gazed on it. She went to visit him next week. He was in the painting.

He was in the painting and the woman owned the apartment. He explained that first things were fine, but he found the woman's eyes increasingly unnerving. He said, at first, I didn't realize how white her eyes were. And then they began to appear everywhere. At times it felt like if I stared at them any longer, I would be drawn into them. This guy's a bullshitter.

He stood there and said, nothing scares me. Nothing. Yeah, yeah. Nothing scares me. I've been to Mordor. I stormed the beaches at Normandy. And then he just looked at a painting

and now he's shitting himself. Yeah, he was in the gallery. He's like, he didn't even look at it. Just points. Is that the haunted painting? She's like, yeah. He's like, I'll take it. She's like, don't you even want to look at it? No, don't need to. Thank you. Goes home, hangs it on the wall. Ah, immediately scarred for life. I'm willing to bet that people are this annoying in real life when you're kind of running a business like this. Like I would say if you ran, I don't know, a hot sauce shop and you were famous for having the world's hottest hot sauce, I'm going to guess that you would be lined up around the corner

with guys like this just being like, how hot is it really anyway? And then cut to five minutes later and they're crying and throwing up. Yeah, yeah. And shitting themselves. People's eyes are a lot bigger than their stomach when it comes to all these kinds of things. Yeah. I mean, that's the plus side of telling people that a painting is haunted.

You're going to get people who still want to buy it for a very different reason. I don't think they're necessarily appreciating the art, but you will still get buyers who, in this this case just simply can't handle it. Have you ever bought anything that you thought was going to be good, but turned out to be very, very bad? 2017 in Amsterdam, I bought a family-sized pack of high Hawaiians magic mushrooms. I was only in Amsterdam for about 12 hours. So of course, ate the whole box at about 11 p.m. Having a borderline sustained panic attack all night,

seeing all kinds of flying dragons, magical colors, talking gnomes. I wish there was a woman in my dreams. There weren't even humans. There was some kind of

genderless guab just floating through space and time. And I sobered up thank God just in time to catch my flight that morning at about 7am

a big hairy dragon from the never ending story showed up at one point he had an Italian accent I don't know what that was about my dad was there but his body

was a chainsaw it was pretty f***ed up what about you? I'm trying to think if I ever bought anything that I thought I would appreciate

and love and cherish and it turned out to be evil and haunted and this did happen to me once as a child when I bought my first Furby thank god I thought you were going to talk

about your ex-wife no no no no Susan is we're not going to talk about her we're not going to talk about her yeah We're not going to talk about it. Yeah. There's a woman who shows up in your dreams, let me tell you.

Your nightmares, I should say. It's come up a lot lately. It has come up. So the Furby, let's go back to the Furby. When you're in a relationship with her, it's hard to know where the nightmare ends and real life begins because it's just one big nightmare. Of course.

Of course. Yeah. The Furby? I lost the best years of my life in her eyes. Yeah. The Furby? I lost the best years of my life in her eyes. Yeah. Can't return anything there. Okay, how about it? Let's just get them all out of our system now.

All sales are final with marriage. They don't tell you that when you sign the check. Okay, let's just say them all. She took back all your money. Just like Svetlana. Sure. Fill in the blank. Sorry about that. the furby though the furby yeah the furby was uh you know there was a time where the furbies were toys that everyone wanted and um uh they were pretty f***ing scary actually it turned out if you didn't treat them right or

didn't feed them not that i was mistreating my furby but uh it became a real horror movie at one point where this thing was just turning on in the middle of the night saying, me hungy. You're kind of, which, you know, isn't that sinister? On paper, it isn't that sinister.

But when the lights are off. Brother, when you're 13. And the moon is shining through the window just onto the little Furby's face. Yeah, and your f***ing beak. A 13-year-old boy. And you just hear those weird little Furby

noises they made and you kind of like open one eye and he's like, you swore you put him in the corner of the room, but now he's at your bedside table looking at you in the face. And he goes, me, hungry. You're like, alright, Furby, you actually need to back the f*** up because you're actually scaring me a little bit.

How do you turn this thing off? How do you turn this thing off? You can't. I know. I swear my sister took the batteries out. One of them still talked. I swear I didn't make that up. These little guys were crazy.

That was the legend on the street. Dude, they were nuts. I think there's a... I feel like Furbies are like the real life equivalent of the War of the Worlds movie where people are talking to each other

whispering like I heard they killed one in Japan. They found out how to do it. They found out how to take them down. They rewired a radio and it made them go crazy.

I heard the Germans are reverse engineering them using the technology against each other. No joking. I actually really have thought for a while about doing an episode just on Furbies, because there are a lot of funny stories on the Internet about people who have had Furbies that are allegedly cursed. But also one of the newer models that have like LED eyes, they were like proper, like third generation or something Furbies. There's steps you can take to make them go into evil mode.

Quote unquote. Why did they program that? And it's kind of f***ed up. You like shake them. You do everything you shouldn't do to a baby. You like shake it, dangle it upside't do to a baby you like shake it dangle it upside down put your finger in its mouth a bunch a lot of weird stuff like that and then it goes like it goes no stop no stop it stop i'm telling you dude i'm not gonna show you

that's up that it says No stop I don't know And if you keep going You're a monster It should That Furby should be Hooked up to the FBI Or the NSA And if you keep going

Yeah You get reported I'm like There's a way to turn The Furby's evil You electrocute their nipples With jumper cables And they actually

Turn pretty fast It's actually Kind of f***ed up You waterboard thing. No, stop. Please, mercy. Yeah, there's some words that shouldn't be in a Furby's vocabulary. And please, mercy is one of them.

I'm not going to show you any videos. I'm not going to talk about this because now I'm laughing too much. I will do an episode on Furby's in the future because that's a great case. I would love to see it. do an episode on Furbies in the future because that's a great case. I would love to see it. But this painting is different because this isn't something that was purchased by Svetlana. This was something that was created by Svetlana. And it seems like she has accidentally channeled some sort of evil in it that was stalking her. Now, of course, the first and second and third sales were all busts. But would the painting sell again?

There's only one way to find out. And that's to join us after a few quick messages from today's sponsors. Alright, we are back in the story talking about the woman in the rain. It seemed like at this point the painting was never going to find the right owner. So Svetlana simply stopped trying to sell it. She packed it away and continued her career as an artist. Which turned out to be a very smart move. She sold many other paintings, made a comfortable living, and completely forgot about the Woman in the Rain. She was ahead of her time. Yeah. It was just too early. It was like Marty McFly playing Johnny B. Good at the Under the Sea dance. Too early.

Although they actually loved it to a certain point. I think he went nuts. Look, Picasso didn't start out making those fucking weird Lego blockheads paintings. Yeah. He wouldn't have sold any. He had to go on a long road of exploration, the blue period, and so on, before he was able to paint f***ed up shit. So maybe that's it.

Svetlana just needs to earn her stripes painting slightly less creepy things, and then people will be interested. That's it. Art sometimes is good art. It's just at the wrong time and place. If I went back in time and played dubstep to a caveman, he would kill himself. He would think I'm some sort of wizard and that what he was hearing is the end of days. He would unalive himself.

He would be so scared. Yes. Doesn't mean dubstep is bad. It just means that's not the time and place to play it. Even a medieval page would think Skrillex Bangarang was the second coming of Christ. He thought it was the day of reckoning, the day of salvation. Yeah, it just needed the right time to come out. And maybe, maybe that's what happens to the woman in rain. Nine years after its completion, another customer came calling. My name is Sergei Skachko.

I believe you have a painting I'm interested in acquiring. Sergei was a Ukrainian musician who had heard about this picture and immediately knew that he wanted it for himself. And Svetlana was only too happy to hand it over. At this point, the painting had been just gathering dust for the better part of a decade. And you'll be happy to know, Kit, this time, the painting didn't get returned. Thank God. But the woman in the rain was still causing problems.

Sergei would later go on to repeat the claims of the previous owners, that ever since it arrived there was a strange presence in the apartment. He said that his wife hated the painting, they'd begun arguing more now than ever. They'd always had a pretty solid relationship, but suddenly they were at each other's throats around the clock for the pettiest little issues. Jeez. And that wasn't all. According to Sergei, all the machines in their homes started failing. Even their brand new toaster malfunctioned.

Hearing that the artwork was causing arguments is surprising, but it's not entirely hard to imagine. Pieces of art can often tear apart relationships, but normally it will be a husband or spouse playing endless, endless amounts of call of duty. And that is the particular art form that is straining on marriages and relationships all around the world. Not normally a painting. You can't usually get so involved in a painting that you start neglecting your relationships. Yeah, I guess a painting is kind of like, if you think of more in the furniture side of things, this is like kind of saying, oh yeah, my wife really didn't want me to get a $10,000 foosball table for the living room. Then I bought it. And I think the thing is cursed because we've been at each other's

throats for the last two weeks. It's like, I think she just didn't like the painting. You said, I'm going to buy it anyway and put it up in the house. And that actually kind of pissed her off. That kind of crossed some kind of line in the relationship of kind of, I thought we generally agreed on things, etc, etc, etc. But you did just say the toaster broke. So that's a whole other kettle of paranormal fish. But the worst part of all was what was happening at night. It was always the same. The couple would be sleeping soundly, but his wife, Yulia, would awake with a start. She'd be roused by a sudden

surge of fear and would bolt upright in bed. As nights passed and time went on, the feelings only got stronger. Until one night, she woke up and was paralyzed with fear. Somebody was walking around their apartment. She didn't get a clear look at the figure as it drifted between the shadows. But she swore that she could make out a tall, thin figure wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Whoa! According to his wife, at night, the woman was straight up leaving the painting and walking around their apartment. I cannot think of anything more terrifying than seeing a painting come to life in the nighttime.

I will give it to her. If you hate a painting enough, this is what you make up to get rid of the painting. Baby, I don't even hate the painting that much, but like she's alive and she wants us dead. We've talked about a lot of crazy paranormal stuff on this podcast. dead. We've talked about a lot of crazy paranormal stuff on this podcast. And there's something to be said for the people who go out one day and see a UFO the size of Manhattan abduct a hundred cows and then zip it to another galaxy. That's one thing. You kind of know what you're dealing with there. And it's life from another universe. And you're pretty confident you saw it. If you come home and you look at a painting that you bought and you're like, I swear yesterday she had a hat on. I f***ing swear to God she had a hat on.

I don't remember her holding that can of Diet Coke and there's one less Diet Coke in our fridge. Like this is kind of weird. That's a very hard paranormal thing to explain to people. Imagine this happened with any other piece of artwork. Like you have one of those famous prints of like the man building the Empire State Building eating their lunch. And then in the middle of the night, they're just all walking about your house, opening the fridge. They didn't get enough to eat at lunchtime. They're just cracking open the fridge. The next day you're looking at it, you're like, he's got an iPad.

What? That wasn't in the painting before. Now, as we said, Sergei was a musician, and it wasn't long before he had to hit the road and go on tour. And by the time he came back, the painting was gone. His wife had removed it from the house and refused to tell him where it went. That's some smart shit, I will say. Yeah. When the going gets paranormal, you gotta get tough. She had to take matters into her own hands.

I don't care how much you paid for it, babe. It's like when I was 13 and my mum went to the supermarket and in that brief window, I buried the Furby. I saw an opportunity and I went for it. My mom came home and said, hey, how's your new, how are things going with your new little buddy? And I went, huh? What, mother? What are you talking about?

My face is covered in soil and tears. No, you didn't get me a Furby. I don't know what you're talking about, mother. She goes out to the garden. Did you dig a hole, by the way? You look out. It's nowhere to be seen. There's an empty hole in the ground where you had buried it oh my god it's either that or it's basically uh the story of the telltale heart

whereas one day i'm in the garden with my mom and i just hear beneath the soil me hangi hangi i'm like sweating bullets you're the only one who could hear it it's the screaming of that hideous furby what i thought you were going to say. It's the screaming of that hideous Furby. What I thought you were going to say was this is the version of me being out somewhere and then my mom taking the opportunity to throw away my System of a Down CDs because they're, quote, the devil's music. Right, right, yeah. Similar, similar vibes. Yeah, that's actually a really good comparison. I think we can all relate to our parents throwing away things that they didn't appreciate. I had a t-shirt that was a picture of Jesus with his arms outstretched, the holes in his palms that just said, come at me, bro. At the time, I thought was a very cool, fun shirt.

My mother did not like it. She actually thought it was pretty insulting to the Lord's image. We didn't see Rory for three weeks. She also threw out my Hooters T-shirt, which as a 15-year-old boy, I also thought was very cool. In hindsight, that was probably a blessing in disguise. So what the hell's going on here, Kit? We need to talk about this. You know, I don't think we've ever come across a case quite like this before.

We've investigated cursed objects and even cursed paintings, but never a painting that has allegedly come to life. No, never. This is the stuff of Ghostbuster movies. Isn't this literally in a Ghostbusters movie? Does a painting come to life? I'm not sure. I feel like it freaks me out

so much that it's got to be buried in some pop culture reference that scared the shit out of me as a kid. Yeah, it's in one of those like 90s movies. Definitely. In my head it's f***ing the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time. Sure. This is a real nerdy reference for those who don't play video games, but there is a boss fight in a video game where you go into an art gallery, essentially in a castle in the woods and you're looking at all of these pictures on the wall.

One of the pictures starts moving if you look at the right one. And they all start swapping about and you have to find the one that's alive. And it is the villain of the game. And it's genuinely really terrifying. I think that kind of messed me up as a kid. This is Svetlana in the gallery trying to explain this painting to someone who wants to buy it. And they're like, but it is for sale though. Oh, it's for sale. But it's like this f***ed up video game where at night she comes to life. You get more than a painting. You get a friend,

you get a roommate, you get a dream buddy. No, you are bang on. This is unbelievably rare, clearly. It's only come up once now in 300 episodes, instance of a paranormal kind of haunting curse where a painting is coming to life. It only feels unusual because, so far as we understand, this woman is not real. This wasn't a portrait that a woman sat for and her soul was captured in it. This was

Svetlana maybe out of nowhere felt something and then she embodied it in this woman. Yeah. One cool theory that I really like is, you know, Svetlana said that it felt like someone was guiding her hand as she painted the picture. And one theory is that whatever this spirit, this phantom, this entity was that was causing all this dread, eventually used Svetlana to create this painting to give herself some kind of physical form. Yeah. right now that all I can do is just kind of haunt people on the regular. But if I use this artist to give me a face, give me a body and an image, I can then kind of transfer into the painting and into this woman. And at least I kind of exist in a physical form now. I mean, this gets into, it's kind of surprising it hasn't come up earlier on this paranormal life, but this is where we get into kind of the paranormal underpinnings of what artists do.

Okay, today we think of artists as like the Rolling Stones on stage playing fun rock music or painting indeed beautiful oil paintings. But artists have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. And one of the original roles in a kind of prehistoric tribal society was the role of an artist was basically a shamanic role they were someone who mentally or otherwise went to the world of the other went through the veil between our world and the other world and picked up on the vibes of whatever truth is going on over there and then they were able to make that piece of music that communicated to everybody else. This is really what's going on in the world. I like the idea of this is you as an artist in ancient Egyptian times. And it's like,

my job is to go to the other world to draw the undrawable, the formless, the shapeless. And the Pharaoh is like, I just asked for a cat. I asked for a picture of a cat drinking milk. That's all I want. And you haven't done it. And I've given you six months. I've drawn my visions from my mushroom trip. It's a dragon hitting a bong. This is terrible. This is terrible art. I don't want to look at this. My wife hates it. It's truth, brother. It's the truth. No, it's true.'s true it's true i mean this is why uh art plays such a pivotal role in our societies because there's no other job quite like it when you're you're creating something out of nothing um so is it possible that svetlana has indeed in the old school shamanic sense, she's tapped in to the paranormal realm

and then brought it into real life via paint. Yeah. I mean, it's a kind of a cool idea. I've never sat down. I did a little bit of like art and painting and stuff when I was younger. I was never really very good at it. And I probably came at it from a bad angle of like,

all right, I'm going to paint this today. But I never just sat down at a blank canvas and just let myself go and paint whatever fluid thoughts and motions come into my mind. But there's a chance it could have been a ghost or a spirit or a demon or something that is using my artistic actions to create a form for itself, just like it did with Svetlana. If anyone's interested in that idea, by the way, I was very surprised and thought it was very cool when I came across it a number of years ago that this was a kind of art movement back in the day around the time of like abstract expressionists and stuff that people get into automatic drawing. And the idea was that people who could, of course, just make traditional, beautiful drawings and paintings, they were like,

I'm just going to hold a pencil. I'm just going to vibe out on a bit of paper. Love it. And there's some pretty amazing creations out there. Oh, hell yeah. We've said on the podcast before, I love the Tate Modern Art Museum. You worked in the Tate Modern Art Museum. That is a greatate Modern Art Museum that is a great place to see some pretty abstract, wild pieces of art so if you're in the UK I would definitely recommend it

and as someone who worked in the Tate Modern I can say that I never heard any reports of the paintings leaving their frames and walking around the gallery. That's beyond your pay grade, buddy.

If that complaint ever comes in, they ain't going to you, let me tell you. There is some sort of night guard dressed like f***ing Batman in a utility closet somewhere that doesn't get talked to for like nine months of the year. And then one night someone will go, hey, they're doing it again.

And he has to come out that night and put them all back into the paintings yeah some james bond motherfucker is that the plot tonight at the museum i never saw that movie it's pretty close the shit comes to life at night that's it i think that's it okay um well one really sweet part of the story is that when asked about the painting and its bizarre paranormal side effects, Svetlana said, I'm sure every picture is born for some particular reason. I believe that there is a right person for my woman. I understand that many of you wouldn't want to see such grief in her eyes on a daily basis, but I'm sure there is someone who needs it just as it needs that someone.

who needs it just as it needs that someone. Someone's like, why don't you put it on your wall? God, no. Hell, no. I don't want to die. That thing is alive. Did you not hear me? Someone's out there, some freak.

Now, of course, the most important question to ask at the end of this podcast is, where is the painting now? I read a lot of different stories and articles about this online some people say that the wife of the musician uh hid it in another house or another apartment so they still have it but it's not on display other people think she burned it buried it destroyed it uh I weirdly saw one article just last night that claimed pretty confidently that the art hangs modestly without a frame in one of the shops in Vinica.

Wow. Okay. So someone claims to have just spotted it in the wild. Apparently so. And they also claim that it only currently now costs about $500. Yeah. Do we know how much it was ever sold for to Svetlana? I don't think so. I don't think it was a huge amount.

It seems like this was kind of her first piece or two sold as an artist. So, you know, it wouldn't have been for huge numbers, even if she did come from a prestigious art school. Wow, that's really crazy. I did want to ask as well, do we know where Svetlana is? No, to be fair, I don't know, but you could know. She's not like some mythical artist who's disappeared off the face of the earth. I think she's still making art. She's been interviewed as recently as like 2007.

Okay. So she's like, she's on Facebook somewhere, but she's just not like... Yeah, I think she's somewhere either around Europe or possibly still in Ukraine, but she's still making art to this day, and this story of the woman in the rain is just a fun little part of her legacy. That's nuts. Good for her. I will say the painting, pretty freaky.

I agree. Legitimately creeps me out. If someone could find it, I'd pay $500 for that painting. Maybe we should try and track it down, and then we can use the Patreon to buy it and put it in our studio. I was just going to say

we just got our first ever studio in London. This would be a cool piece of art to hang on the walls. I'm actually starting to have some second thoughts after just saying it.

I don't know. It might get a bit creepy. She would make a great guest on the podcast. Imagine if she came to life one night, walked out of the painting I don't know. We might get a bit creepy. She would make a great guest on the podcast. Imagine if she came to life one night, walked out of the painting as the thunder cracks, and we're just standing there being like,

hey, great, so my name's Roy, this is Kit. Your mic is just over there. We're just going to keep it kind of chill, do a bit of improv comedy. Can I get you a liquid death? No? Kombucha? It would be fun to do one of those old school internet things where we put up a 24-7 webcam where you could log on anytime and watch it.

Oh my God, that is genius. We should totally do that. Okay. Leave it with us. Leave it with us. But also this is a mini call out to the commune to see if anyone can find this painting. I think at the time of writing, Ukraine is at war also. Sure.

So I don't think it's on anyone's... Maybe not their priority. Priority to sell that painting. I think you can get prints of the painting. Oh, okay. But, you know, they're kind of like, I don't even think they're done very legit. It's all the counterfeit stuff.

So ideally, we'd like the original if possible. But yeah, we'll see what we can do. We'll get back to you with that one, guys. But of course, we're left with one question before we wrap up today's podcast. And that is this one, Kit. Do we really believe that the story of the woman in the rain is really paranormal?

Or is it simply another false tale? Rory, it's so frustrating to be in the same position time and again when we cover curses on this paranormal life. Because curses are, whilst one of the most fascinating paranormal phenomenon of all time, one of the most ancient, and they have some of the greatest stories, whether it's been ancient Egyptian curses and Tutankhamun or others that we've covered, stories, whether it's been ancient Egyptian curses and Tutankhamun or others that we've covered, they leave some of the least evidence of any type of paranormal phenomenon. This is not a UFO where we have prints in the ground of where a UFO left radiation. This is not a ghost that we have

photographs of or indeed fur from a cryptid's back. These curses supposedly cause events that generally leave nothing behind. Right. Yeah. I mean, this is the problem with today's cases. We only have one piece of evidence and that's it. Whoa, keep it away from me. That's it. I think we need to look at the painting while we come down on our conclusions, just to remind ourselves what all this fuss was about. I mean, I will say that it is very believable on the more scientific reductionist side of things that it is substantially creepy enough that there could be a kind of self-fulfilling psychological effect here where it looks so creepy that you mentally decide that bad things are

happening and you need to get rid of it. Yeah, I think we'll be in a bit of a gray area today on this week's conclusion, because art in itself is kind of magic and paranormal. It is a painting of an image, but it can make you feel things and create emotions and responses in your body just based off looking at it. And that could be one of the reasons that's happening here. People are seeing this creepy picture and having a response to it. Or it could be something a little more. It could be paranormal.

And that's what we have to decide. How do you want to do it, Kit? You want me to go first? You want you to go first? I want you to go first. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm looking at this thing and I'm telling you,

that motherfucker's paranormal. I'm giving it a yes. I'm giving it a yes. I'm giving it a yes this week, folks. I genuinely think if I had the original painting of this in my house, my life would change for the worst. I genuinely think it would. And I think that makes it, by definition, paranormal. It's supernaturally scary.

I'm going to go with a no today. I think this is testament to Rory having spent more time with this case that he's getting affected differently than me. But what I will say is if we could track this thing down, maybe this is something we can investigate firsthand. Yeah, that would be amazing. And then we could put it to rest once and for all. Well, there you have it, folks. One yes and one no. Those are always the hardest conclusions. I feel like after the hour, we are no closer to coming down on a definitive explanation. Nevermind Sergey, this painting is tearing this podcast apart.

Get her at each other's throats. The toaster just broke. Maybe we need to put up a poll on Instagram and Twitter and quiz the listeners to figure out. It's very shareable. What do you guys think? We can post a picture of the painting and you can decide for yourselves whether or not you really think this thing is paranormal or not. Thank you so much to Amy Grisdale for researching this week's case and Louis Blatherwick for editing. Thanks, guys! Guys, there are so many

future investigations to look forward to. For example, our investigation, which I think is probably going to be a three-parter on Furbies. That's going to be a big one.

Leave that one with me. We're going to get one of those little f***ers in the studio and interrogate him live on the set. Keep talking. I think I have a pretty f***ed up photo of a furby in my photo library yeah because we we actually we didn't say this but kit and i got big into furbies like a second wave of furbies when we were way too old to have them when they were a bit like Y2K nostalgia. But my famous story was I was at university in my third year.

And one night I got really drunk with all of my flatmates. We were just having a night in, I think we were just playing a bunch of drinking games. And then I think a week and a half later, this huge box arrived at our front door. And we were like, what the hell is this? Did anyone wear something? And we brought it in and this thing was enormous it was like it would go up above your waist and we opened it up and it was filled with packing peanuts we were kind of digging around and we forgot that we got really drunk that night two weeks ago and won an ebay auction to get like 10 retro original furbies. And they just came and they arrived. So we all basically had these Furbies

to look after for our last year at university. It's the start of a B-rate horror movie, to be sure. Yeah, I think I still have mine. I called him Raccoon. He was a really cool guy. Didn't like being waterboarded too much, but that's the only way you get the secrets out of them. Oh, wow.

So you've got that episode to look forward to. What were you looking up on your phone? I think I've archived it probably for my own safety somewhere, but I think it turned up on TPL socials at one point. Oh, yeah. It was like a Furby inside a circle of candles. It was like a summoning circle. It was like we were doing some kind of ritual.

I don't remember why. Didn't you have a Furby? I swear there's a video that we recorded ages ago of us when you had a Furby that got like dropped on its head and then kind of didn't work quite right from that point onward, but he would kind of speak in like tongues and he would only open one eye. I had to put a pillow over him at night because he wouldn't stop. You smothered him. We need to find out whatever battery technology was in Furbies and put those into Teslas today because that shit would never run out. Ever. You're speeding it down the highway.

Your Tesla's like like slow down please me hungy it veers off the road off a bridge but until that frankly incredible upcoming furby episode there are so many other episodes you can get over on patreon.com word we have over 50 bonus episodes that from as little as five bucks a month you can get access to and just binge listen to all of them there's a ton of cool rewards and merchandise over there so go check it out it's a great way to support the show and to get some extra content links in the description patreon.com forward slash This Paranormal Life. And of course, one of the things you can get over there is shout outs at the end of the podcast.

That's what we're going to do right now. Special thank you to John Lucas. John Lucas, the lesser known brother of George Lucas. You know, George Lucas obviously went on to direct and create the popular franchise Star Wars. John Lucas created a franchise called Sponk. Oh, wow. Yeah, Sponk.

So was it also sci-fi or? It was a Western. Uh-huh. Okay. Okay. Took it left. Okay. Yeah.

Was it good? It was about an alien. Oh. The genre was, it was all over the place. I see. Yeah, it was kind of weird. Well, how's it looking? How's the Rotten Tomatoes on that?

He was the fastest in the West and he could pull out an eight shooter because he had eight arms. Every gun had one bullet. It was a messy franchise. It didn't do that well. On Rotten Tomatoes, they didn't review it.

That's how bad it got. But hey, check out Sponk if you like Western sci-fis. Thanks to Alan Corrales. Thanks to Alan Corrales. Go to Alan Corrales if you want to see the Aurora Borealis. Borealis? Everyone wants to see that shit, right? Yeah, I guess.

But it's hard to see. But if you've got Alan on your side, it's a dead cert. You just slip him a 50, you'll see it. You'll see it. What does that mean? I'm worried what he's gonna do to me are you gonna hit me with something it sounds like he's gonna hit me with something for the first few years of his uh tourism company yeah he would hit you with a two

by four and you'd see stars definitely but uh he's actually got a new proprietary way of he sprays a bunch of pollution into the sky and it creates a pretty neat little light show. Right. Kills every bird within a 50 mile radius. But you see Aurora Borealis. You get the pick for the gram anyway. Thanks to Catherine Louise Cordero. You better stay on her good side or Catherine Louise is going to bash in your knees. Whoa. Yeah.

And Catherine, she's quick to anger. Sometimes the deal hasn't even been made yet and she's already seeking repayment. Imagine a loan shark that's all shark, no loan. Jesus, man. This is bad. Yeah. I don't know how she got into the commune,

but everyone just keep your distance, stay on her good side. Take a chill pill. Thanks also to Alice Eaton. Alice, I can tell you one thing you won't be doing in the Paranormal Commune. I'm just going to let you guess. All right. Okay.

All right. Sorry. You'd be snacking. You'd be chewing. I don't know if we could technically classify it as eaten because I think there has to be some sort of nutritional benefit, really, to be considered eaten. Yeah. But there is gruel, there is sludge, there are rocks.

So you'll be consuming, but eaten might be a stretch. Oof, yeah. Thanks to Lawrence Price. For Lawrence, the price is always right. Mmm. So whatever you charge, that's fine? Whatever you charge, he'll steal it. What are you...

He doesn't care what the price is, because everything's at a five-finger discount, baby. Everything's free, that's the price. He's a criminal, then. Yeah, oh yeah. Okay. Thanks lastly today to Kayla. Kayla, can we grab your address? We just want to mail you something. Oh no, it's no big deal. Don't worry about the shipping. We'll cover the shipping.

It's kind of... Just keep an eye out because it is quite large. It is quite a large oil painting-sized package. Don't be alarmed because the postage is going to say it's country of origin, Ukraine. Sure, sure, sure. And if you open the package and it's just a painting of rain and no woman,

do call. do call please cause she is loose then and we need to get that Batman from the utility closet to come and help thank you to everyone who supports us on Patreon and everyone who tuned in to this week's episode of the podcast, we had a blast I hope you guys did too

and we will see you of course next Tuesday for another paranormal tale to and we will see you of course next tuesday for another paranormal tale