Spanish medium and artist Josefa Tolrà made it her life’s mission to spread love and to make the invisible visible with her drawings and embroidery
After becoming a “mechanical transmitter” – as she identified herself – Josefa Tolrà drew and wrote as an antidote to sadness and depression.
Josefa Tolrà in 1957
Like other mediums in the first half of the twentieth century – most of whom were women – she felt a responsibility to offer her services to a humanity overwhelmed by the great tragedies that had filled Europe, with millions of souls in need of saying goodbye to their loved ones. To this end, as a gesture of hope and comfort for others – as well as a way to heal the wounds of her own soul – Tolrà put down words and drawings as a psychic trance experience and, between 1941 and 1959, produced over a hundred artworks and filled multiple notebooks with illustrations and texts that she termed “inspired”
Inked pages from Horizons, one of Tolrà’s sketchbooks from 1949
She composed poems and magical calligrams of paranormal origin, embroidered silk shawls in a fluid filigree style, wrote novels, and served her neighbours as a healing medium. She perceived people’s auras and used a pendulum to interpret electromagnetic forces which she felt allowed her to alleviate their psychological distress.
The Geologist and the Gardener (fluidic force drawing), 1955, ink, gouache and ballpoint pen on paper, 23.5 x 18 in. / 60 x 46 cm
Tolrà saw herself as a mediator who had established a connection with the spirits of the deceased who accompanied her. She wrote in one of her notebooks: “A being of light guides my hand,” and in a drawing: “I am like your seer.”
Born in 1880, in Cabrils, a small village near Barcelona, Tolrà came from humble origins and received no formal education. Her life was marked by profound losses, notably the death of two children after which she suffered from severe bouts of depression. Despite this, she was never marginalised by her community nor did she receive psychiatric treatment: her creativity and her home environment were crucial to maintaining her mental balance.
Drawing in which the Fluidic Force is Marked, 1948, ink on paper, 26.5 x 38.5 in. / 67.5 x 97.5 cm; Prado National Museum, Madrid
By PILAR BONET JULVE
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #128.
