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JB Murry never received any formal education and worked as a sharecropper and farm labourer until the age of sixty-five. He married in 1929 and raised a family of eleven children. In 1977 Murry suffered from a hip problem which was followed by a religious vision in which he was told to spread the word of God through the creation of a 'spirit script'. While drawing he would find himself in a trance-like state which he believed gave him direct communication with God. He would interpret his 'script' by looking through a bottle of holy water. Murry developed an expressive style of calligraphy, intermingled with images of ghostly figures and twisting scribbles. In his later pieces, black, red and blue feature predominantly.

JB Murry 1988 Courtesy of Tate Archive Photo credit: Monika Kinley view larger image

Untitled (Spirit Writings) undated Courtesy of the artist's estate and the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection Biro and felt tip pen on paper view larger image

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