This drawing is from a series based on research into the neurotic work of a French spirtualist, Jeanne Tripier (1869-1944).
Incarcerated in an asylum near Paris from 1934 until her death, she claimed that she received psychic communications from the dead and recorded these transmissions in writings/drawings and crazy wonderful embroideries and knitted forms. Among the voices in her head were Saint Teresa, Marie Antoinette, Morin the One-Eyed Snail, Pontius Pilate and Joan of Arc. I duplicated her original work, increasing the scale and working with a fine tip ball point pen, rather than the flowing ink she utilized. I was curious to see if, within the making, I could sense or learn anything about Tripier.
These drawings coincided with my struggles to complete my dissertation, which somehow, at the time, made the effort seem appropriately insane.