When I had a commission for the portrait of a very famous Mexican artist - probably the most famous one outside of Mexico - I took months to start it. (I normally wouldn´t take that much time for a commission work, but this commission was for someone special and there were no time limits). I was worried about if I could actually make something different, something mine.
I want to express something authentic through my art. So, painting someone so many times painted was hard. What would make my painting unique? After all, there are hundreds, or maybe even thousands of versions of the face of this artist. Her self-portraits, of course, and then lots and lots of paintings and pictures based on photos of her. Her face is on notebooks, T-shirts, mugs, postcards and what not. It has become merchandise.
The day I finally decided to start painting this portrait, I took a walk with my family in Coyoacán, the old neighborhood where this artist lived. It was Saturday, and my spouse wanted to see if his artist friend would be selling her paintings in the nearby park. We didn´t find his friend, but instead found many Frida variations. So many that I almost felt discouraged again. But I decided I had to start.
When I paint portraits, I hope to capture something of the person whom I´m painting or drawing. A little bit of his or her soul. So when I finally was ready to start, I thought "what kind of a person I´m going to paint?". For all I have read about Frida Kahlo, she was far from serious, calm and serene person that we most often see in the pictures of her. No, that particular photo used everywhere definitively was too zen.
After some searching, I did find the perfect reference photo. And I hope I managed to capture at least some of the rebellious and passionate woman and communist who didn´t care about social conventions or what was expected of women at the time. (And I think embroidery was just perfect for this portrait, as she loved crafts).
Do you think I managed to do that?
This will be the first painting in the series “Women with wings”. The name of the series in inspired by Frida herself, as she said: “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?”.
