This is the first week of something super exciting.

Each week I will select one person I find to be truly inspirational and I will write about their life, passions, and what makes them an idol worth or admiration. This week I decided to go with the woman that got me out of an almost suicidal , bed-ridden depression and got me painting again after a long period of artistic stagnation.

Frida Kahlo

We have all certainly seen her image and possibly the Julie Taymor film but some of us know very little about her life. Embarrassingly, I will admit that until about 3 months ago I knew her as "that artist with the unibrow". That is literally the only defining characteristic I had to identify this remarkable woman. While her unibrow is striking it is far from the most memorable thing about the legendary artist. Clearly, many people are aware of this as her art is renowned and celebrated more than 60 years after her untimely death.

So, let's jump into her life....

Childhood

Frida was born to Matilde Calderón y González and Guillermo Kahlo in Coyoacán. Her family house which she grew up, and died, in was known as The Blue House. Kahlo herself described her childhood as very sad. Her parents were not in love with one another, were often sick, and her mother was a religious fanatic. While her mother was intelligent she also had the tendency to be cruel and calculating.

When Kahlo was 6 years old she contracted polio which kept her isolated, and bed-ridden for months. It also caused her to be bullied by her peers. However, it also made her the favorite of her father because they shared disability in common. He brightened her childhood immensely by teaching her about the world, art, and encouraging her to take up activities and sports to get back her health. She took up many sports that were at the time reserved only for boys.

College and the accident that would change her life forever.

In 1922 Kahlo was admitted to a prestigious college that had recently begun admitting women. The school focused on indigenous Mexican heritage and ridding themselves of the concept that European culture was superior to Mexican. Here she would meet nine people that influenced her greatly. They were rebellious, and dedicated their time to fighting against anything conservative, while pulling pranks, and debating philosophy and Russian classics. They were known as Cachucas. Some of them went on to become key figures in the Mexico's intellectual elite.

On September 17, 1925 Frida's life was forever changed when the bus she was riding on collided with a street car. She was impaled, surprisingly derobed, and covered in gold glitter that fell from the street car that hit her. The accident would result in serious injuries that yielded a lifetime of complications and lead her to an early death. The iron bar impaled her through her pelvis and she also broke her collarbone and fractured her ribs.

Frida Kahlo, Votive painting, after 1926

Her treatment included wearing a plaster corset that confined her to bed. Since her dreams of being a doctor were now destroyed Frida thought about becoming a medical illustrator to combine her passions. While she was confined to her bed for months after the accident Frida began painting using an easel that helped make this possible.

Her torrid love affair with Diego.

Unfortunately, I am having to cut out so many points because while I could talk about her for hours I am writing a blog, not a novel. I will include the documentary that got me interested in Frida at the end of this blog.

Diego and Kahlo got married in 1929. Diego was an intellectual, painter, and well-known atheist. She was absolutely enamored with Diego in spite of some pretty huge character flaws such as being an admitted womanizer. Also, most everyone who encountered Diego described him as physically unattractive at best with which I would have to agree.

Frida was obsessively and hopelessly devoted to Diego.

“I love you more than my own skin and even though you don’t love me the same way, you love me anyways, don’t you? And if you don’t, I’ll always have the hope that you do, and i’m satisfied with that. Love me a little. I adore you.”
― Frida Kahlo

However, another quote of hers shows that their love was not all sweet.

There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the train the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.

They would stay together on and off until death but it was with long breaks, other lovers, and a lot of heartbreak. The worst of which was caused by Diego dating his sister which would tear apart their relationship for years. In the time that Frida spent without Diego she would disrobe herself of the traditional dresses Diego loved, cut her hair short, and dress in a way that was considered masculine at that time. She would also take on new lovers, some of which were female but none of them were serious and they all knew her heart was really with Diego.

She often depicted her struggle with her love affair through her work:

Diego and I, 1949

The two Fridas, 1939, She said this depicted the Frida Diego loved and the one he did not.

A miscarried child that would haunt her forever

At one point due to her illness she lost a child. She miscarried in 1932. This is something many people report wrong. It is often said that Frida could not have a baby due to her illness. This is an important distinction to make because actually Frida was devastated by the loss. It haunted her and she depicted these demons in paintings.

The Flying Bed, 1932

A lifetime of isolation, pain, and suffering

When asked why she painted herself Frida said because she was alone so often and she was the subject she knew best. She also did not call herself a surrealist because she said her paintings we all based on her reality and not dreams or nightmares. A friend described her as "living dying". On and off throughout her life Frida would be bed ridden and suffer awful pain but in spite of this she painted a legacy, traveled overseas, learned multiple languages, and laughed.

Her jewelry

Frida wore significantly more jewelry when she was in a lot of pain. In general she wore colorful, bright, and excessive jewelry and large flowers in her hair to distract from her feeble, sickly body. Her fashion became a big part of her memory.

To see more of Frida's fashion check out this link. After more than 50 years of being locked away we have the honor of seeing actual clothing from her wardrobe and her decorated prosthetic leg that she wore before her death:

http://www.boredpanda.com/hidden-frida-kahlo-wardrobe-ishiuchi-miyako/

Frida's Final Years and Death

In her last years Frida faced a lot of medical complications due to having a bone graft surgery on her spine. She eventually had her leg amputated in 1953 when she got gangrene. She became severely depressed, irritable, and moody and attempted to kill herself with an overdose.

"they have given me centuries of torture and at moments I almost lost my reason. I keep on wanting to kill myself. Diego is what keeps me from it, through my vain idea that he would miss me. ... But never in my life have I suffered more. I will wait a while..."

the overdose failed but her addiction to alcohol and painkillers persisted.

I am now crying.

Frida anticipated her death. She spent her last days drawing skeletons and angels in her sketch book. The final drawing being of a black skeleton which is thought to be the angel of death, with her last words written with it.

"I joyfully await the exit — and I hope never to return — Frida"

How she inspired me personally

It might seem like more of a depressing tale than an inspiration but to someone with illnesses that keep me isolated and bed-ridden who fights with the urge to kill myself to escape the earthly pain I was inspired by her ability to keep going and to create, and laugh, along the way. I also felt validated hearing her story and reading her words. People who are not so sick that they are confined to mostly one room can't understand the struggle and often disbelieve it so for sick people it is great that she wrote all of these journals and made all of this art. It resonates so strongly with me.

Even though she was sometimes depressed, and almost always toward the end of her life. She left behind a legacy. She traveled. She danced. She partied. She learned. She lived very vibrantly. She is worth remembering.

Oh also, she had pet monkeys. How cool is that?

Some poignant quotes by Frida:

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you."

"I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim."

More images of Frida and her art:

Though she was described by her own father as not being attractive. I find her to be a beauty.

Broken Column, 1944

The Wounded Deer, 1946

If you want to learn more about this amazing woman I strongly reccomend "The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo" a doctumentary by Amy Stechler that is available in full, without ads, on youtube.

Hope you enjoyed this and "tune in" next week for another spotlight! :)