As artists there is always a need to find a compare artwork from other creators to our own. Inspiration is key when developing in the artistic world. Creating is not easy without this element, there are many ways of finding inspiration for an artist, experiences, muses, art styles people, landscapes, songs. Every artist has another artist that has inspired their creations, and styles and mine is Frida Kahlo.
Born on 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico, Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo, one of the biggest female painter and artist in history. Kahlo struggled all her life to achieve stuff, thanks to all the obstacles and problems she went through in her life, At age 6 Frida contracted polio, leaving on of her legs skinnier than the other while she suffered spina bifida, a disease that affected the legs and spinal cord development.
During her school age she was involved in a tragic bus accident that left her injured for months in a cast that held her spine and pelvic in place. It was then during her recovery and that she decided to paint to kill time and alleviate the pain. Frida’s family encouraged the art she was producing and eventually led her to look for art revision from Diego Rivera, who later turned into her husband. Frida explored many art styles like surrealism, symbolism, and magical realism, most of her paintings are self-portraits or family portraits, Frida once said I paint myself because I am often alone, and I am the subject I know best”.
One of her most popular surrealism pieces is “Henry Ford Hospital” a painting that reflects Frida pain and suffering when she went through her second miscarriage after trying repeatedly to get pregnant. This painting has several elements that represent her illness and failure as well as fragility and sadness.
There is something about all of Frida Kahlo’s paintings that transmit so many feelings and have many things to say, her self-portraits are often full of color with eyes that say more than any words.
Diego and Frida did not have a relationship like any other, it was full of adultery and toxicity that only made them love and hate each other more every time, and the pieces created by her during this rough patch are the proof of how this amazing artist used her pain and experiences to create beautiful and sentimental pieces that led her to become a legend in the art world.
