At eighteen, Miguel Rodriguez left Spain to join the Spanish Legion in Morocco, but soon deserted. Hired by a circus as a handyman, he married and moved to Calais. Longtime affected by mental disorders, he ended up being committed to the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Venant. Very soon he began to paint and draw. In 1983, he was placed in a low-rent housing, but the attempt to make him live outside of institution was unsuccessful. Suffering from diabetes, Rodriguez refused to be treated and died.
 His work has two sides: one side bright, dynamic drawings, which he hung on the walls of the hospital; on another, disturbing forms, dark and ghostly, produced in the moments of deep exhaustion, which remained hidden in portfolios.