Biography and Works of Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo is a very famous Mexican painter who for the most part painted self-portraits of herself all while portraying the Mexican culture she grew up in. Kahlo is very important in the art world because in her self-portraits she demonstrates how paintings can portray pain and suffering yet show that she remains strong and that no matter what negative life events occur nothing would take her down. Kahlo was extremely important in Mexican art that she was able to surpass barriers and got to the point of being a highly influential figure that would change the world of art.

Kahlo was born in 1907 to a German dad and a Mexican mom. She had a horrific life with many pain and suffering events that later shaped her to be a very influential and well-known artists. The biggest life changing event was her involvement in an accident at the tender age of 18. 

According to cultural trip she was on a bus in Mexico City when this accident happened. The bus wrecked due to being struck by a trolley car. Her abdomen was pierced by a metal handrail and her spinal column broke into three pieces. This traumatizing life changing event had such a major impact that no one thought she would ever walk. This was the main cause that she would never come to have children. Since virtually her whole body was wrapped in a plaster there was not much, she could do to stay busy, so she decided to start painting while lying in her bed. She later went on to say: “I paint myself because I am lone, because I am the subject, I know best”. 

“Implicit is the notion that an extraordinary artist must suffer to experience the deep emotion that infuses their art” (Vernon 2016). This clearly tells us that the deep emotions and pain and suffering that she underwent during the span of her life really helped her spark her creativity in expressing those feelings through painting. Not only has Kahlo been a figure for the world of art but is now someone that females can look up to. She is now an important figure in the feminist world. She was a female that fought through her struggles and was able to be herself during times where machismo was very extreme and prevalent in Mexico. She was able to move beyond that barrier and come to light and give herself the spotlight among the world or art. 

One of the many famous paintings that Frida Kahlo painted during her time in bed due to her injury accident was one called The Wounded Deer. This painting is a deer in the forest surrounded by rather dry to dead trees. These trees may represent loneliness and fear. The trees are not only deserted in the forest with no life but create a scary atmosphere to walk in. This portrays Kahlo’s loneliness as she had issues with her husband Diego. Her husband had an affair with another female of which Frida discovered. Even after her discovering this Diego continued with the affair. He blamed all his medical problems on her. “He thinks I am to blame for all that is happening because I made him come to Mexico…and that that is the reason for his being in this condition” (Souter 57). Her being stuck in bed for a long time also triggered her depressive loneliness in her life. Not being able to walk and go out in public to see life made her feel deserted in her bedroom. 

The deer has a head of herself with big long horns. This again demonstrates that the feelings and message that is being portrayed in the painting is that of herself. It’s another self-portrait that intends to express her feelings. Despite all the negative surroundings her head remains free of any facial expression. I believe that this sends the message that despite all the negative events during her life time she always remained a strong female. The long horns depict a sign of dominance and could very well be sending the message that nothing would bring her down. The deer is stabbed with several hunting arrows specially focused along the back, spinal cord and heart of the deer. The wounds caused by the stabbing arrows are bloody. The hunting arrows send a message of pain and suffering. 

Common knowledge tells us that when a deer is struck with several hunting arrows it is in pain and will eventually die. Her injury accident involved the bus she was in getting struck by a trolley. This in turn caused her spinal cord to break among other injuries that she underwent during the accident. The blood could possibly be portraying the surgery that she underwent in New York. Despite the surgery she was not able to get rid of the back pain that continued to be a nuisance through the rest of her life. The arrows focus not only on the spinal cord but also the heart of the deer. 

I believe that this sends the message that throughout her life her heart was in pain due to the marital problems that she had with her husband Diego. It could also portray that her heart hurt from not being to ever have kids of her own since the injury happened pretty much around the time of her life that she was able to conceive. On the ground is a tree limb that seemed to be torn off a tree, yet it still has leaves that are partially green but mostly yellow and brown in color. I believe that this is a sign that despite all the trees being dead there is still a tree that is partially alive struggling but alive. The leaves give a sign of hope and presence of life. 

Despite the horrid conditions the forest is in there is still that one tree that is powering through with life. The branch being broken reminds us about the broken bones and spine that she underwent during the injury accident. In the very fore background one can see the stormy skies with lighting demonstration of her rocky and stormy life changing events that she underwent during her life time. Frida Kahlo ended up giving this painting to one of her friends as a gift for their wedding. With the painting she gave them a note that read: “I leave you my portrait so that you will have my presence all the days and nights that I am away from you” (Frida 2019). This message could possibly indicate that she wanted her friends to have a painting of her that demonstrates her pain and suffering throughout her lifetime. 

The second painting I will discuss is called The Broken Column. In my opinion this painting is incredible. She is represented in an iron corset after an operation although that corset is real (Google Arts & Culture, 2019). That corset is white, although the corset in the image does not look heavy it is. She was months in that confinement and the decision of having that in her room to improve her health led her to feel at her worst but also took her to the inspiration to create these beautiful works. In addition, her hair with tears in heaps to show the real suffering and despair that had to happen while she was in that anguished moment of pain and suffering. In the painting there is a pillar representing her spinal cord. I find that beautiful because it is the pure reprieve of what sustains her body. The pile in the paint is broken and that shows her insides broken, trying to hold together but at the same time demonstrate pain. It also represents the break of her emotional state by not going through a good time in her life. Around it there are nails buried and that shows a tartar to fix something. You can also see her naked in the image. 

Showing the youth that she enjoyed at that time her tense skin and beautiful olive color shows that it was a moment of contrast her young body suffered from a confinement due to this accident that happened that also led to her not being able to have children. A dream that she had that she could not fulfill and that when she painted this picture she already knew. In the background of the image we can see there is a vast field that shows the loneliness that she had in all the time she was in bed recuperating. She felt so alone and enclosed that she wanted to demonstrate it through a field without trees, without life without anything. I

n that anguished moment that was happening, she felt alone and wanted to represent herself in the work as a vast field. This work is very advanced for the time. Only to see a naked woman showing the suffering that had to pass through in a work in beautiful and incredible. She was always had a Victorian art style and Victorian way of how she led her life. Lastly, one of the most famous paintings of hers is the one called The Two Fridas. It is known as a picture of a heartbreak. She painted this shortly after 1939 when her husband asked her for a divorce. This painting does a very well job portraying her life in a nutshell. 

For example, it is a painting with two of hers holding hands sitting down. They are both dressed in distinct dresses. The Frida on the left has on a white dress that is very much European portraying her German heritage from her German born father. The Frida Kahlo on the right is dressed in a multi-colored dress portraying her Mexican heritage from her mother Matilde Calderon. Through the body of the two Frida’s one can see the hearts from the exterior. One heart is oddly shaped and sliced open displaying its ugly insides. This heart portrays a broken heart after divorce with her husband Diego. The Frida on the left shows a perfectly normal heart showing that she had somewhat of a positive part of her life. “Although a lot of symbology appears within her paintings. Kahlo tended to reject the label “surrealist” as she claimed that she painted her own reality” (The Two Fridas). In conclusion, Frida Kahlo’s famous portraits are very important in the art world and will continue to be revolutionizing how artists portray feelings and pain and suffering through paintings. Frida Kahlo is a great example of a female that is strong and determined to not let anything bring her down. She taught us to turn negative events in our life into positive ones through a hobby. She will continue to be an important figure in Mexican art and around the world that will continue to influence the world of art on a global scale. 

Learn 

 \On PBS Newshour I stumbled upon this story by Katie Bouman on how her algorithm helped us see a black hole. I find it fascinating that a woman of my same age 29 years ago that this April 10 Katie Bauman she took the first picture of a black waterhole seen in the history of mankind. is a newly graduated MIT computer researcher. Ela was part of a group of scientists around the world to be able to have this great discovery that is history within modern human. I find that as a woman and young person it is a pride for her and for all young women who want to excel and show that they can. She was part of this research that lasted years to be able to achieve since all the astronomers of the world joined to achieve this important photo. 

The black holes were part of an imagination since there were no records of their exist. I never opted to see one before. Only Albert Einstein was the first and the only one who deduced his existence years ago. He called them a cosmic monster that does not miss anything with its gravitational attraction, neither matter nor light, whatever its wavelength. Thanks to all this and the great effort that was made that April 10, history was made by having the first images of a black hole. 

Read 

I am currently reading Book, The Perfume, history of an assassin. I found this book very scary but at the same time I cannot stop reading it due to the amount of suspense. This occurred a few centuries ago. He was born in a poor village among bad smells and meat. But his sense of smell was unique in the world. He could sniff everything and know how far apart it was. This thing could sniff the Rain miles away. He became addicted to smelling everything. He wanted to know how he smelled everything that existed on this earth. His smell was so unique that no one could understand what he felt with every new smell. 

One day he found a new job. It was in a perfume shop. Where the owner of the perfume parlor realized that this boy had a unique gift. And when they realized this, he forced the boy to create the most unique and beautiful perfumes ever seen before. There was so much hype with his abilities to smell these new fragrances that the owner of the perfume parlor began to become more ambitious and asked him to create a new fragrance every week. 

This boy one day discovered that the natural smell of women was unique and irreproducible. But he wanted to create a perfume of the natural smell of women that he felt attracted to. They must kidnap and kill them to get their natural smell. He wanted to create a fragrance from the most perfect and beautiful women. This continued to happen until the village where he lived a rumor started going around that women were disappearing and would later find dead. It was so scandalous that he had to leave town but when he left, he found his last victim. She was a beautiful young girl and daughter of the richest man in the city. He managed to enter his house to kill her and get her stench smell. By joining his smell with the rest, he could create the unique pre-treatment. 

They ended up choking him, but before that he hid the fragrance in his mouth. The parents of the female later smelled the fragrance and fell so much in love with its aroma that they started eating the killer until there was no trace of him. 

Me 

In my life in these months I have been a bit moved. A few weeks ago I bought a house. That made me very excited and I still feel like I cannot believe it. The good thing is that the house is in perfect condition. The old owners changed the roof, they fixed the kitchen with new furniture and new furniture. In the bathroom the old owners fixed the shower, they changed the old sink cabinet for a new one and it has a beautiful new mirror as well. The other rooms have new paint. The house has three rooms and I love that. The only thing that it does not have is a garage but that is part of remodeling plans that will later take place. 

On the exterior of the home I have just been trimming some trees and beautifying the landscape. Aside from staying busy with the new house my mom arrived from Chile to visit. She is my everything and am very glad to see her since I don’t have much family in this country. She was very excited that I had accomplished the purchase of a home. She plans on staying in the country for a few months and taking a vacation with me to Mexico in the next couple months. I am very excited to get to spend some time with my mom as she is my everything. We plan on spending a week in Mexico City to learn about the countries culture and way of life. I have heard good things about the culture and am anxious to see what it is all about.

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