Charnley's diary entry reads: "Things had really begun getting out of hand. A strange spiritual force was making me feel I could not smoke or else I would incur a disaster. This was driving me crazy as normally I am a heavy smoker. I walked and walked throwing my pouch of tobacco away... When I arrived home from one of my long walks my twin phoned. I told him how I felt and he said some words of truth that completely cut through the situation to the bone and rendered spiritual forces thankfully impotent . I wrote, to complement "Love hurts" of 23/4/91, "Love is strange" because this was the first real help I had been given in my illness... The painting also illustrates a stage, as in a theatre, as I feel I am being watched."
Bryan Charnley (1949-1991) was a British artist whose work illustrates his experiences of schizophrenia. In 1969 he enrolled on a BA in sculpture at the Central School of Art and Design, but left due to a breakdown. He started painting in 1978, and from the late 1980s he began to get recognition for his work, with Bethlem Royal Hospital purchasing four of his paintings. From 1987 to his death he kept a dream diary as a way of understanding his own mind. In March 1991 he decided to experiment with his medication and embarked on a series of self-portraits, a series which exposed his mental illness. The series was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 1995. He took his own life in July 1991.
