Frida Kahlo An Empowering women

Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Mexico. She was a very political women who was a communist. She lived a very hard life. She had polio when she was a young child which disabled her. She was also involved in a horrible accident which left her with many horrific injuries that she would battle throughout her life. She was also involved in a marriage that left her feeling very lonely at times, and left her with a broken heart throughout her life, because her husband was very promiscuous. Although she was hurt by her husbands infidelities she herself was not Innocent either. She was bisexual and would cheat on him as well. She did in fact lead a lonely life spent bedridden in hospitals, because of the injuries she had acquired in the accident. I loved her work, which inspired me, she used her work to express the feelings she had through out her life, and painted the story of her life.

If I wouldn't have read about her I wouldn't have gotten the same meaning out of her art work. I wouldn't know exactly what her art was reflecting. Also, I don't know much about Mexican culture or history or Aztec culture (Both influenced her art work heavily), so I wouldn't be able to know the meaning of some of the Iconography she uses in her art work. Such as her self portrait with a monkey and a black panther in the back ground. A black panther is an icon for lust in Aztec culture. This resembles her sexual side, because she was a very sexual person. Had I not read about this artist I would have been ignorant to the meaning of the symbols in her painting, and would not have taken as much from her work. This is an example of how important culture is when you view art, and what you take from it. Different cultures will see different things when looking at her work especially if they're ignorant to what her picture and the things in them truly depict. This is why it's so important to be curious and educate yourself on different cultures when viewing art.

Most of her art work is representational, but have a more abstract idea behind them. She used her art work as a way to express her emotions and things things that were going on in her life. For example the picture of her split in half and naked. It depicts the extreme amount of pain she was going through in her life. By the exposure of her spine and the nails hammered into her skin, shows how much pain she was in. She uses her art to express her emotions and feelings, and to tell a story of her life. If you view her art work it's almost if you're reading a book about her life.

She was also a very empowering women. She was very true to herself in life and in her paintings of herself. She paints herself with her uni-brow and mustache, and isn't ashamed of it, because those things make her who she is. She was also very open about her sexuality and she shows this in some of her paintings. She empowered many women of her time and of future generations to be themselves and be proud of who they are, and be true to themselves. She was very big on honesty and being truthful about ones self. She shows this in her painting Two Kahlo. She shows one side of how happy she was when she felt loved by her husband and how torn she was when he treated her bad. She had a an agenda when creating her art. One was to express her feelings, and to be true to herself. This gives great meaning to her paintings.

She empowered me the most when I read the story about her coming to her art show in Mexico when she was bedridden, and was taken there by ambulance, and enjoyed the show in her bed in the gallery. This was very empowering and inspirational, because she was so weak, but made her self be strong enough to go enjoy something she truly enjoyed in life... Art. This was a message to me to never let anything stand in the way of my passions and joys in life... not even a illness. I loved her art and the meaning that stood behind it.