by Marty Coleman | Feb 12, 2025 | Artists I Love |
WHY FRIDA?
Why do I love Frida and her art? Let me count the ways. She’s a story teller and a truth teller. She’s creatively, emotionally, socially, politically and relationally fearless and courageous. She’s resilient and persistent. She’s independent. I went to the Dallas Museum of Art this week to see the Exhibition ‘Frida: Beyond the Myth’. It’s organized as a chronological review of her life and art and uses photographs, drawings and paintings to examine and explain how her biography was so important to her creativity and resulting artwork.
Frida with Cigarette,, Altavista, 1941 Nicolas Muray, gelatin silver print
This stunning photo shows how truly determined and successful she was in being herself, fully and completely, with no apologies and no regrets. She had immense pressure to conform throughout her life and at every turn she chose to stand her ground and say, ‘This is me, take me or leave me’. This led her to being respected around the world by thousands of artists and art patrons, even as she confronted their culpability in bending to the status quo that she herself would not.
THE ACCIDENT
The seminal event of her life was a trolley/bus accident when she was just 19 years old. She suffered a fractured spine, broken ribs and collarbone, dislocated shoulder, crushed right foot and multiple fractures in her right leg. She was not expected to survived and as a matter of fact, her then boyfriend, who was also in the accident and injured, though less severely, advocated assertively for the doctors to work hard to save her when the inclination was that she was probably not going to make it.
The Accident, 1926
THE FIRST SELF-PORTRAIT
Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress, oil on canvas, 1926
Kahlo is known for her self-portraits and here is her first known one. Painted a year after the accident she gave it to her boyfriend Alejandro Gómez Arias in appreciation and in hopes of keeping her in his thoughts while she continued to recover.
THE ABORTION
Years later she was romantically attached to Diego Rivera, one of the most famous of all Mexican muralists. Upon finding out she was pregnant Rivera demanded she get an abortion, which she did. It was the first of many. This image illustrates the severe depression she suffered as a result. It is one of the first where she illustrates a cycle of life, something she returns to again and again.
THE DEBACLE
In the early 1930s Diego Rivera was invited to create a number of murals around the United States. They all ended up being controversial but none more so than his mural at Rockefeller Center in New York City. It depicted the heroes of the communist revolution in the Soviet Union and around the world. This of course did not go over well with the ardent capitalists of New York, especially the Rockefellers. The mural was condemned and covered up after many many months of work on his part.
My Dress Was There Hanging (New York), oil and collage on masonite, 1933-1938
Frida was incensed by what she saw as the blatant hypocrisy of America in condemning Rivera’s work while promoting itself as a paragon of Christian humanity toward others. If that was so, why were the unemployed allowed to starve? That and many other questions haunted her and this painting was her effort to express that by showing the disparity between the collaged unemployed below with the ostentatiousness and seduction above.
My Dress Was There Hanging (New York), close up
Frida in front of the Unfinished Communist Unity Panel, New Workers School, 1933, Photograph by Lucienne Bloch
THE SUICIDE OF DOROTHY HALE
One thing Kahlo was above all else was direct. She wasn’t obtuse or hidden in her visual story telling. This didn’t always work well for her. In 1939 Clare Booth Luce commissioned Kahlo to created a portrait of remembrance for the mother of Dorothy Hale, an actress who had committed suicide by jumping out of a New York Skyscraper. Kahlo did not paint a portrait of remembrance, she painted a very graphic and direct image of Hale falling to her death. Luce wanted to destroy the painting as it was deeply disturbing to her but was talked out of it.
The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1939, oil on masonite with hand painted frame
The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, close up
SELF – TRANSFORMATION
Kahlo continued to paint self portraits throughout her life but they changed as she got older. No longer do you see her refined and elegant with her hair up. Now she is starting to show herself with her hair down, more casual and unkempt, something that had to do with her being bedridden in pain but also because she no longer was driven to adorn herself, to be ‘attractive’ to Rivera or anyone else.
Self-portrait with Monkey, 1945, oil on masonite
Self-Portrait with Loose Hair, 1947, oil on Masonite
STILL LIFE
As she became less mobile she spent more and more time painting symbolic images and still lifes. That didn’t mean she gave up imbuing her images with meaning. As you can tell in Sun and Life the symbolism is strong, with a fetus, labia images and shooting phalluses. This was painted not long after she had her 4th abortion so it is likely it all refers back to the complicated sexual and emotional relationship she had with Rivera.
Sun and Life, 1947, oil on Masonite
Sun and Life, close up
In this still life you can see similar imagery reflecting her identity. The sensual cut open fruit, the Mexican flag and native parrot all show parts of her, as does the flag impaling the fruit, not unlike how she was impaled in the accident so many years before.
Still Life with Parrot and Flag, 1951, Oil on masonite
BEDRIDDEN
For the last years of her life she was completely bedridden, unable to go anywhere. She was in constant pain and the various surgeries she underwent through the years had all failed to alleviate it. She painted from her bed until she could no longer. She died in 1954 at the age of just 47.
Frida Painting with Diego Rivera looking on, 1951
THE END
In the end it has to be said Frida Kahlo led a very tortured and sad life in many ways. She would agree, not being one to have a pretend happy disposition when it wasn’t warranted. There is a type of person who wears their heart on their sleeve. Kahlo was like that but instead of on her sleeve she wore it in her paintings. They are masterful dissections of a deeply wounded soul, baring the most intimate of feelings for all the world to see. She was one of the first true autobiographical artists and her influence in the art world has been felt ever since.
Frida with Magenta Rebozo, 1939, Photograph by Nickolas Muray
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by Marty Coleman | Jan 9, 2025 | Sketchbook History Tour |
Recent Brush Drawings – 2024
I have continued to draw with my Copic Gasenfude ink brush lately. Something about the line width control I can get and, at the same time, the unpredictability of the line makes me enjoy both the act and result of drawing.
And as you can see I continue to draw in church. The sermons have been particularly uninspiring since our new Pastor arrived 4 months ago so I am very glad to have my sketchbook with me. The only problem is not paying attention to the sermon, which I used to be able to do but only if it’s brain stimulating in some way. When they aren’t I tend to zone it out.
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 7, 2024 | Sketchbook History Tour |
The Pianist
We lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for many years and attended First Baptist Church of Tulsa. The set up of the altar and stage combined with where we sat made the Pianist front and center to my line of sight. As a result I drew her a lot. The thing I remember is how quietly talented, poised and beautiful she was. After a while I talked to her and told her I drew her and showed her a few of the drawings. But sometimes I wouldn’t because I usually was drawing fast and often exaggerated or distorted her looks and I didn’t want her to think I thought she really looked like that. She didn’t.
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 2, 2024 | Series |
This is a little off from what I usually post but I thought you might like to see what I do outside of art and running.
The Big Move
We moved to Texas in 2000 to be closer to our daughter and her expanding family. We found a fantastic house within 15 minutes of her and bought it. The interior was dated but perfect for our needs. The outside however was pretty much an empty yard. There was an old shed in the back and an old car port under a big oak tree in the side yard that the prior owner had used to tinker on his cars. On this blank canvas I envisioned a brick path leading to a large deck with a roof.
The Blank Canvas
The first phase of the project was to build the brick path from our back door around to that car port in the side yard. This entailed digging a trench 3 feet wide by 12 inches deep for the length of the path, which would split off in two branches, one leading to the shed and another leading to the small grill area of the future deck. The digging was hard and laborious and I did it while training for the Boston Marathon, which made it all the harder. There was a time when work was stopped due to rain that flooded the trench. However, it was a great time playing in the muddy pond for our granddog Annie.
Before – grass, dirt and an old carport
Path Outline
Muddy Annie!
Gravel and Sand
Then came big loads of gravel, sand, and brick. I used two different color bricks with the highlight color forming and X again and again the length of the path.
Path Complete!
Once the path was complete I took a break and focused on other part of the back yard, primarily creating border gardens. I started working on the actual deck in the summer of 2021. This first meant planning it all out on paper and figuring out layout, materials and costs. The deck was designed with 3 distinct areas, a small grill area, a large sitting area and a medium size dining area. It was quite big, 400 sq feet to be exact.
The Big Project
Physically the first thing to do was to get electricity out to the deck area. I had a electrician put a new circuit breaker in and wired it to the outside of the house. From there I dug a trench across the yard to the fence. I installed conduit, wiring and a plug over at the fence so I could have power while building and afterward for lighting the deck.
The deck area before
Then it was on to regrading the side yard to be flat. It wasn’t far off from that but it had to be completely flat and just like the path, I had to dig down about 8-12 inches to lay the foundation cinder blocks that the deck would sit on. Once again, hard and laborious and in the middle of a very hot summer!
Throughout the construction I kept thinking the phase I was in had to be the physically hardest part to build so it would just get easier as I went along. This was not true. Every phase turned out to be more physically demanding than the one before it.
Foundation Blocks in Progress
Framing in Progress
After laying the foundation blocks (approx. 36 of them, or maybe 63 of them, I forget now.) I started to build the frame section by section with 2×6 pressure treated pine. Doing it by section was easier to figure things out without being overwhelmed (though honestly it was never not overwhelming!)
Decking in Progress
Then came the actual decking. I used real wood, not plastic or composite, because of the price and environmental reasons. Once again I built by section and made each area distinct by creating a border around each one. Filling in each area was pretty straight forward until I got to the diagonal section and that took a lot of precise measuring. That was a challenge but I did it without making any big wrong cuts. It probably was the easiest part of the project.
Roof Framing in Progress
Once that was done came part 3 of the project, the roof. The carport was basically just a slanted roof over dirt but it was very low, so much so that when the raised deck was taken into consideration in nobody would be able to stand up straight. So the old roof was torn down, and the posts that held it up were taken out as well because they were in the wrong spots. The back of the roof was even with the fence so instead of putting posts there I used the aluminum posts that held up the fence and simply added extensions to them. I had to build a frame for the roof just like I had for the deck itself but this was a lot harder because the roof was at an angle and that meant precision measuring once again.
Staining in Progress
Once the frame was up it was time to stain the entire thing. Before staining I had to wash and clear the wood, which meant using a pressurized pump sprayer to get the wood ready to take the stain. For the stain itself I used a soft car wash brush on a pole to do the entire deck and most of the roof (before putting on the roofing material).
Roof Cover in Progress
The next step was to put on white corrugated plastic roofing, the wavy sort. I took a long time to get them aligned properly, adhered with screws so they wouldn’t come loose in a storm. We’ve had 3 severe wind storms since then and the roof hasn’t moved an inch!
Furnishing
While I was building Linda was shopping. She found a very nice outdoor seating area that fit perfect. She then added 2 rocking chairs and a small table. The area now seats 10 so it’s great for family gatherings.
Aluminum Cladding
The final touch was to clad the bottom of the deck, where it met the ground, with strips of the metal roofing I had taken down from the old car port.
The Deck Complete!
I finished the deck and roof and had it ready just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas, 2021. I was very excited to show it off, especially to my out of town family who was coming over the holidays. But the powers that be decided a cold winter rain would fall for most of thanksgiving week and Christmas week so showing it off basically consisted of people walking out, looking at it, saying cool and then going back inside. It would not be until over a year later that a planned family gathering happened when the weather cooperated and we were able to sit out and enjoy the deck!
The entire project, Path, Deck and Roof took a little less than a year, with about 5 months for the path in 2020 and 6 months for the deck and roof in 2022. I did the entire thing myself with the exception of help from my wife Linda on the setting of the roof posts into concrete one afternoon.
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