Madelyne Evans is a first year PhD candidate in the School of History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. Her thesis centres on the twentieth-century Welsh artist Gwen John (1876 - 1939) and the mystical and theological writings of twentieth-century philosopher, Simone Weil (1909 - 1943). Her research is focused on the complex political and spiritual dimensions of Weil’s thought and its ability to offer the means to understand John’s work in new ways. Developing new models of feminist scholarship into the representation of spirituality, mystical encounters and limit-experiences, combining modes of enquiry from the fields of art history and theology. Her thesis is provisionally titled "Decreating the self as feminist creative act: Mysticism, Simone Weil and the work of Gwen John”.