We have been wanting to get back into traveling since Covid slowed us down. Now we are finally doing it! We are headed to Mexico City this week and also to Oaxaca. I am so excited! Both are such creative, artistic cities! We’ve done a bunch of research and gotten lots of recommendations. We’ve looked at different museums to visit and I want to visit the Frida Kahlo Museum as I love her self portraits! They each seem to tell a story. I love paintings that tell a story.
Frida Kahlo
So if you don’t know, Frida Kahlo was a prominent Mexican artist known for her vibrant and emotional paintings, often depicting her own life experiences and struggles. Her art was influenced by her physical and emotional pain, stemming from a childhood polio infection and a near-fatal bus accident in her teens. Her work is characterized by its surreal and symbolic elements, reflecting her tumultuous personal life, indigenous Mexican culture, and political activism. She is such an icon for independent women and her personality quite a force I understand. You have to admire that with all she went through.
I once saw her work when I was in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I would love to see more of it.
Painting Frida
In honor of our trip to Mexico City, I have been doing some painting of Frida portrait art.
So I’ve always wanted to do a Frida portrait. But for some reason I never have. Until now.
It all started by chance. I had three small paintings I was working on. Acrylic on paper. Sort of Mexican desert scenes. After awhile of working on them, I started to get frustrated. I didn’t like them at all. They seemed too contrived. So I started covering them over in paint and a portrait started to emerge in one of them and then I thought of Frida. And there you have it. She came to life in my painting.
I continued painting on the other two, covering over the desert scenes with faces. And they too turned into Frida Kahlo faces. But I didn’t think they really look like her — just her character — so I started calling them my Frida Sister paintings. So they are her but they are not her. More like the essence of her.
I might do a touch more work on them but mostly they are done. I am curious. Which one is your favorite? And have you been to Mexico City and what is your favorite museum there?
I will leave you with this poem. I wanted a poem that talked about Frida Sisters. Something that could relate to my painting’s theme.
Frida Sisters Poem
by Anonymous
Frida’s sisters, fierce and fond,
In vibrant strokes, they paint their bond.
Through trials, tears, their spirits soar,
In Frida’s art, their souls explore.
In pain, passion, they persist,
With bold colors, truths insist.
With brush in hand, they dance and sing,
Echoes of hues, their voices bring.
Sisters, bound by art’s embrace,
In grace, they find their rightful place.
Through Frida’s eyes, they seek to see,
Strength within, the will to be.
In canvas, solace they find,
Bound in promise, their souls entwined.
