Frida Kahlo

This is a picture of Frida Kahlo (blogsdelagente.com ())

Who is Frida Kahlo? Frida is an artist hero, she changed the world of art. She used art to express herself and to show her feelings. Frida also changed how people thought of art. She showed that all art has a hidden meaning.

Family Life

Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico. Her full name is Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon. In German Frida stands for peace. Kahlo had five sisters, two were half sisters, Maria Luisa and Margarita. When their mother died the father married Matilde Calderon, Frida's mother. Frida was her dad's favorite because she was a tomboy. They went to have Matilde, Adriana, Frida and Christina. Frida was the third daughter between her mother and father. She often said that she was born in 1910 because that was the year the Mexican Revolution started. In the Mexican Revolution people wanted the government to represent everyone, not just rich people. Also the people wanted the right to vote.

This is a picture of La Casa Azul (ocw.mit.edu ())

Childhood

Frida was very imaginative. Even though she was born in her mother's house, sometimes she said that she was born a block away in a white house. When she was older Frida's grandmother gave the house to Frida's mother and Frida painted it blue. They called the house La Casa Azul or the blue house. In the house there were many animals that lived in the garden. Including deer, turkey, parrots and dogs. Frida's favorite pet was a small monkey called Fulang-Chang, which means "old monkey". Kahlo suffered from an illness. She suffered from polio at age six. She stayed at her house for nine months because her right leg was thinner than her left. She was teased at school because she had to wear a shoe with an extra thick heel to help her walk. Kahlo's dad would take her to the park to get exercise and to play. Frida had to put three socks on her right leg to make it look like the left. Later on, her right leg started to get better and her limp disappeared. Then she continued to go to National Preparatory School. There she met a boy named Alejandro Gomez Arias, he became her boyfriend.

Adulthood

One day in 1925 while she was in a brightly painted bus, something tragic happened to Kahlo. Gomez found a seat at the back of the bus, she was just sitting down with her boyfriend when suddenly a street car crashed into the bus, causing a piece of metal go through her hipbone. She broke her spinal core into two pieces, her left elbow was dislocated, and she broke her leg into seven parts. She even made a painting of the accident. In the painting she is lying in a bed and she is in front of the hospital. Her boyfriend left her because she was all "broken". Later on when she was in the hospital she showed her paintings to Diego Rivera. Diego was a very famous painter and he enjoyed the pictures that Kahlo showed him. Later on they got married in Mexico City. Frida was 22 years old and Diego was 43 years old. She had a lot of pregnancies but lost them all. Those days were really sad for the couple. Later in 1939, the couple got separated for a while but came back again after a while passed. In the time Diego was gone she started painting more. She won a Moses award for her painting.

Paintings

Frida Kahlo's paintings aren't just any paintings. They mean more that that. They include lots of skulls, daggers and bleeding hearts. She expressed a lot of her feelings and pain in her pictures. For example she put a meaning to each color. Black means nothing, navy blue means distance and leaf green stands for sadness, leaves and science. Yellow means darkness, fear and sickness, just like greenish yellow stands for madness and mystery. One of Kahlo's quotes are "I am sick... I am broken... but I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint. I paint my own reality."

This is a picture of The Two Fridas. (bandagedear.com ())

The Two Fridas

In 1939, at that time Diego Rivera got separated from Frida, Frida painted "The Two Fridas". On the right is the Frida that Diego loves with the Tehuana clothes he likes and with a whole heart. Then on the left is the Frida that Diego does not like, the one with the Victorian gown and her trying to stop the flowing of blood. The drips of blood is a possible reminder of her lost children and many surgeries that she had, as well as the pain she had when she lost Diego Rivera. (Look on link on bottom of the page). Frida died in July 13, 1954 in her sleep. She was 47 years old when she passed away. It was an awful day for everyone that knew Frida Kahlo. She is my hero.

Frida Kahlo is my hero because even though she was "broken" and had many diseases, she still didn't give up in painting. She drew her reality and she showed me that it doesn't matter where you are or who you are, you can still show your feelings someway or another. When I grow up I am not going to give up. I am going to follow my dreams so that they can come true.