100 Drawings in 100 Days - Blythe as Frida Kahlo

BLYTHE

(KNOWS HOW TO ROCK THAT EYEBROW SITUATION)

when i was in college, i took a profound interest in women artists later in my studies. it was towards the middle of my degree that i really started to ask myself the question of whether i was prepared to "do this", to make this my career, my living, my everything. and seeing as how i forgot to have children, the answer was 'yes'.

my major professor would constantly remind us all that we ought to have a second job as "backup". in other words, he knew of nobody personally who was making it as an artist, and it would be in our best interests to have insurance, i guessed.

i began researching female artists from the time they first began appearing in the renaissance (there were very few back then, but they were dissuaded by their families to do so, and would paint and have an artists' presence as men). then mary cassatt came onto the scene in the mid 1800's, but women in art colleges were treated with a patronizing attitude from other male students and teachers, and were not allowed to draw the live model. and after a while, her came little miss frida kahlo!

frida kahlo was born just outside of mexico city in 1907, and suffered physically for most of her life, which is probably what brought her to become a painter. she was confined to bed in a full body cast for 3 months after being in an automobile accident at the age of 18. her injuries were severely debilitating, and left her with fractured ribs, multiple fractures to the leg and foot, spinal column, shoulder and a hand-rail from the street car she was traveling in impaled her abdomen and uterus, which left her reproductively challenged.

whilst she was confined to her bed, her father set up an arrangement so that she had a mirror positioned directly above her face, and with some sketch paper, pencils, canvas paint brushes and paints, frida was able to release all of her emotions and eventually her life story onto the canvas. even after she was rehabilitated, she did suffer relapses of chronic pain, but she was able to maintain a decent level of quality of life.

she married diego rivera, a very famous mexican mural artist and the two of them were a very combustible connection - both with their fair share of infidelities, which led to their divorce and then re-marriage that ended up being just as fiery and troublesome as it was the first time.