Untitled (2005). Mark Strolia (b. 1979). Text by Dr Cyrus Abbasian
Mark is a young White British man, known to psychiatric services since June 2000, with a history of heavy recreational drug use. In his most recent admission, after using cocaine, Mark had become psychotic with hypomanic features. During this period he drew a number of highly detailed and colourful pictures eloquently conveying his distress and psychosis.
In this picture, which was his first, the eye of God is shown crying blood, and Jesus appears with angels and masses praying. To the right are further depictions of what he perceived as evil trying to overwhelm good. During this period Mark was highly distressed, chaotic and confused. He described his mind as being split in two, good and evil. He was uncertain of his personal identity and felt as if he was from a different planet. His ‘evil head’ is drawn in the bottom right, decapitated and on a spike.
In subsequent pictures he drew aliens in a spaceship and depictions of deliberate self-harm and first-rank symptoms including thought broadcast and paranoid persecutory delusions. His final picture, a very simple drawing in black and white, was a testament to his recovery.
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