Frida Kahlo Continues To Teach Anyone Willing To Listen, Watch, And Learn

I continue to be fascinated by Frida Kahlo.  I read any book I can find on her.  While reading about her today, this thought came to my pen:

There are at least two ways to measure an artist’s death:

1)  When they physically die, and
2)  When they stop creating and publishing new artworks.

The first is difficult at best to recover from.  The second is also difficult to recover from, but at least in life, we are better able to choose the times and mediums for our rebirths.

Kahlo, after living of life filled with almost incessant physical pain and frequent emotional pain, kept painting up until the end.  These are the titles of her last paintings, loosely translated:

“Nature Life”
“Fruit of Life”
“Long Live Life”

Here is Frida Kahlo’s final painting, with the words “Long Live Life” written into the slice of life front and center:

frida-kahlo-viva-la-vida-2.jpg

She created this painting in 1954, after living most of her adult life in and out of hospitals, suffering from chronic pain, infertility, and amputation.  She died 8 days later. 

Frida Kahlo on Wikipedia

I don’t know what others hear, see, or interpret from Frida Kahlo’s work.  But whatever it is, I encourage everyone to listen, watch, and learn from what she struggled to communicate.  She could have lived a quiet life of desperation, but she instead chose to paint and publish her ideas, feelings, pain, and art so that her story, and the story of women like her, could be seen for all time.

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Frida Kahlo Post Series:  1  2  3  4

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