Frida Kahlo

Frida is an icon. She means so much to so many people. Many artists have been inspired by her and her face is ubiquitous.

In my portraits of Frida, I wanted to focus on Frida as a revolutionary- (I think she would like that description.)

Frida fought for the rights of the Indigenous people against Colonial rule, for women to have equal rights, and against racism and homophobia. Frida changed the way women see and represent themselves in art. Women artists can focus on themselves as the subject of their paintings instead of the bold, heroic scenes that men paint. Women didn’t have to be seen through the male gaze; instead, a woman could put her gaze on herself, through her body, through her femaleness. Frida doesn’t spare the viewers; she paints her truths, her broken column, her miscarriages, her lovers, her bisexuality, and her unusual pets.  Her self-portraits are both individual and intimate, as well as universal. Many women can relate to Frida. Her work is subjective, and she paints from the inside out. Her husband, the famous Muralist Diego Rivera, admired her work and said she was the better artist. He knew how subversive her small paintings were.