Mother Teresa

As the 10-year anniversary of Mother Teresa's death is marked, previously unpublished letters from her have surfaced. The noteworthy aspect of these letters is how they seem to be soaked in despair and reveal more than just questions about her faith.

For this illustration, I wanted to capture the feeling of complete emptiness and hint at an internal conflict. The type of conflict that would throw into disarray everything she stood for. Her pose has a defeated look with shoulders slumped and arms hanging like dead-weight without expression. I exaggerated the posture to accentuate the sense of despair and create some long flowing lines. Her face is sullen and achingly vacant--not even enough energy to tense her jaw. Her desolate eyes look off the page for any sustenance. She musters what reserve she has to hold on to her cherished rosary bound tightly around her hand, beads digging in as reminder to the pain that binds her to this role. The cross on the rosary dangles off the end of the page without reverence.

I hoped to capture total emptiness with a bit of negative tension--not the typical Mother Teresa.

face detail