Environment & Social Activisim through Art
Carolann Espino - My Life in Art
The Essence of Frida Kaulo
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Why my love of Frida Kaulo
​ 1907-1954​
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Kaulo as a person and painter; revealed her gallantry and alegra in the face of suffering. Kahlo lived her formative years against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). Her life wos framed by two traumas in Kaulo's early life. At age 6, she contracted polio which caused her left foot to atrophy and gave her a limp. On September, 17, 1925 when she was eighteen the bus that took her home from school was rammed by a streetcar in Mexico City. She was impaled on a metal bar in the wreckage; her spine was fractured, her pelvis crushed and one right foot broken in many places. Due to this accident she could never have children. In Kahlo's art she presents herself "splitting," a psycological coping mechanism associated with trauma. To cope wtih the debilatating illness she invented an imagery friend . From that day until her death, she lived wtih pain and the constant threat of illness. Frida Kaulo's central subject was herself. Most of her paintings were done as she laid in a bed with a mirror above her. She dressed in flamboyant clothes, preferring floor-length native costumes to hide her lifelong injuries. In 1929 she became the third wife of Diego Rivera. Everyone knew who Frida and Diego were: he was the greatest artist in the world at that time. Whereever she went she caused a sensation. "I paint my own reality," she said. "The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to."I paint always whatever passes through my head." Near the end of her life , her foot was amputated due to gangrene. Kaulo expressed a death wish in her diary. Kaulo wrote, "I hope the exit is joyful, and hope never to return." In April 1953, less than a year before her death at the age of forty-seven she had the first major exhibition of painting in her native Mexico. Frida embodied the whole notion of culture for Chicano and Mexican women. She inspired us. Her works didn't have self pity, they had strength. This is why I had to create a sculpture of this amazing women . She was before her time, a revolutionary, a communist, courageous , a political activist and full of life. She had an impulsive, nature, loved men and women and flaunted it until she died. Her persevance and never give up attitude was powerful as a Mexican-American artist of the 1910-1954 era.
Frida's Words from the Grave
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Ceramic Frida Kaulo Vase
Artist. Creator. Visionary.