Wednesday 25 March 2015

Josefa Tolra

Josefa Tolra, was an artist and medium born in Cabrils, Barcelona 1880-1959.
She never visited an Art school, but she started drawing and painting in her 60’s between 1941 and 1959, when both of her sons passed away. A gentle lady who took up drawing to help her overcome the enormous sadness caused by the death of her two sons: “Only when I’m drawing I feel at peace”.
Josefa Tolra produced more than a hundred drawings, wrote numerous texts and embroidered a range of shawls. A patient and absorbing activity done at home while attending to the needs of her family and neighbours who visited requesting her help as a healer. She never wanted to be an artist nor did she seek recognition, drawing was an antidote against the need to overcome the existential pain. Her work is spontaneous while at the same time very detailed, done through the exercise of graphic patience and extrasensory inspiration. Josefa Tolra was a visionary artist. She was illiterate, but she wrote poetry and long texts in Spanish. This happened during her delusions and transits, when she communicated with the “beings of light”, as she called them. (Eleonora)

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