Artistic Inspiration: Frida Kahlo

When I first encountered the work of twentieth century Mexican painter Frida Kahlo as a teenager, I hated it. With all of those self portraits, I thought she had to have been the world's most vain unibrowed woman. And yikes! blood! Thankfully, my understanding of art has matured. There is much beyond unibrows and blood to inspire anyone here.

Seeing as many of her painting were self-portraits, you could pay homage to her by penciling together your brows and wearing traditional Mexican dress; however, that's more of a costume than a reference. Here, I let her clothes influence a completely different look with a long skirt, gold accessories, bright hair flowers, and of course, a skull.
Frida and Her Little Dog Too

Perhaps because she was in a horrific accident that had life-long repercussions, Frida's work frequently turned to the macabre. To mimic the painting Las Dos Fridas, I chose an ombre dress that reflected the turbulent sky, spiky accessories, and of course a damaged heart necklace. I like the feminine floral print of the shoes because Frida's work was very feminine and also because the petals on the toes look like dripping blood.
Like my heart was ripped out...


Frida, who often wore a bouquet in her hair, liked to incorporate nature into her work. I used several nature references from Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird for this outfit -- a lurid-colored jungle print, fur and feather textures, twig jewelry, a bug ring and a raw quartz ring.
Frida's Jungle


Here, I used desert colors of her painting as inspiration. The spiky bracelet and snake clutch were also inspired by the desert.
Earth

Comments

palmandpineblog said…
Such a great post! Lovin' the first outfit.


xo, tasha
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