by Tim McMahan

Bill Farmer walked slowly across the Antiquarium's top-floor art gallery -- named in his honor -- and looked at drawings and paintings of his wife made during one of the darkest times of her life.

There they are, on display for anyone to happen across on a warm Friday afternoon - drawings, paintings and images of a woman bent in pain and fear, clutching her head as if being dive-bombed by invisible bats. In some pieces, she looks merely tired, reclined in a bed or sleeping chair. In others, she's confused and afraid, surrounded by her ghosts.

"We were down in Mexico and Margie got hepatitis," Farmer explained. "She was in bed a lot, she didn't have much strength. So I had a perfect model."

It was 1966. The Farmers were living in Mexico City, where Margie had been given a job to start a school based on the Montessori methods. It was an innovative, individualistic approach toward education that had become a focus in her life after she became disenchanted with traditional education.