Then, you slow it right down by reading a book recommended by a school mum friend called Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Absolutely amazing stuff that certainly boggled my mind and, well, I was about to say got me thinking but that is about the opposite of what it got me doing so lets just say it got me.
So while I continue to contemplate life from a whole different perspective I'll pop an article in here that was published in The Pilbara Echo sometime recently...I don't have the date (so now I've lost time as well!). This one was on Frida Kahlo - a woman who spins me out in a really, really good way. Rather than hoping you have a good day I hope you are in a really good space...
The woman behind Casa Azul
Frida Kahlo is an artist who has always fascinated me. She was born in Mexico at a time of great discontent with massive changes about to happen. Then the richer were getting richer and the poor, poorer. When Frida was a toddler the Mexican Revolution started and this was also the time of World War One and then the Great Depression.
Prior to these events Mexicans had looked to Europe for artistic, fashion and style direction. However after the Revolution there was developing pride in Mexico and recognition of the value of traditional art. Mexican artists moved away from European styles and concentrated on their own back yard – the good and the bad. Diego Rivera, who Frida later married, was one of the most important artists of this time.
Frida came from an affluent family and had a very traditional catholic upbringing. At 6 she was diagnosed with polio. When she was 18 she nearly died in a trolley accident resulting in her being fully confined for 3 months with full recovery taking 2 years. It was then she started painting to help her parents pay her medical expenses.
After marrying Diego and Frida went to USA, living and working in different cities. There they got into trouble with their observations on the divide between rich and poor. They were also sympathetic to communist ideals and Leon Trotsky and his wife stayed with Frida and Diego after they had returned to Mexico. At this time Diego had an affair with Frida’s sister and they separated. They eventually got back together but divorced and then remarried again.
She became an art teacher and after her health worsened she spent most of her time at home in Casa Azul (the now famous Blue House). She required further surgery and ended up addicted to alcohol and pain relieving drugs. She remained proactive about her beliefs and against medical advice attended a political rally in 1954 where she got pneumonia and then died.
Frida’s art was influenced by Mexican folk art and daily Mexican life. She also had a great love of animals and they featured heavily in her work. Whilst others considered Frida’s artwork of the Surreal style she did not. Frida thought that her artwork reflected her life and it was of a personal nature. Her paintings, particularly her self portraits, are full of emotion and the physical and emotional pain she experiences in her life is there for all to see.
After her death it took 20 years for her artwork to become well known and now her work is associated with the women’s movement. Her life story is an inspirational one - she lived with great pain and overcame many hurdles (physical, emotional, historical etc) and made a success out of painting where not many others had managed to. Throughout this she also managed to live life with pizzazz and seemed to stay true to what she believed in. Now, not only does her artwork sell for millions but she has had plays and movies made about her.
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