“i thank god for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees & for the blue dreams of sky & for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” — e.e. cummings

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough” — Oprah Winfrey

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.” — Woody Allen

“I do not think we have a “right” to happiness. If happiness happens, say thanks.” — Marlene Dietrich

Jax

“Purring is not so different from praying. To a tree, a cat’s purr is one of the purest of all prayers, for in it lies a whole mixture of gratitude and longing, the twin ingredients of every prayer.”  — Kathi Appelt (The Underneath)

“I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. “ — Walt Whitman

“When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.” — Maya Angelou

“Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” — Dalai Lama XIV

“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” — Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. “ — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.” — Kahlil Gibrán (The Prophet)

GiGi

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust

“Be present in all things and thankful for all things” — Maya Angelou

“Fell in love with a beautiful blonde once. Drove me to drink. And I never had the decency to thank her. ” — W.C. Fields

“True forgiveness is when you can say, ‘Thank you for that experience.’” — Oprah Winfrey

“Gratitude is a ‘heart’ memory” — French Proverb

“He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.” — Gabriel García Márquez (Love in the Time of Cholera)

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” — Albert Schweitzer

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ” — John F. Kennedy

“I tell you this, my friends, in the experience of my life time, the failure and the pain have certainly outstripped the triumphs. But this has not destroyed my faith — my faith in reason, in truth, in human solidarity — but, on the contrary, it has made it indestructible. I see the hope of the world in you. And, from my heart, I thank you.” — Frida Kahlo

“Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.” — Garrison Keillor

Happy Thanksgiving!

Por Juliana Gomes

} Restaurante mexicano Habañero @ São Paulo.

Inaugurado em  2007 no coração do bairro Santana, zona norte de São Paulo. O restaurante tem pretensões bem definidas – Baixa Gastronomia das Américas – e tem cumprido bem o que promete.

Você vai se sentir em um dos restaurantes populares do México, a decoração é sob os tons fortes de rosa e laranja, os quadros com fotos de Frida Kahlo, a grande estrela do restaurante, estão espalhados na parede do ambiente central. O espaço do Habañero conta com um grande balcão onde o bartender faz deliciosas Margaritas, e você pode saboreá-las ali mesmo enquanto espera por sua mesa. O restaurante ainda tem uma área externa com um pé de jabuticaba e mesas ao ar livre (para fumantes).

O cardápio tem comidas de boteco de paises como o Brasil, Cuba, México e Caribe. Onde você pode escolher entre o escondidinho ao taco, e saladas ou quesadillas generosas. Não vá embora sem experimentar a refrescante sobremesa da “personagem” principal, Frida Kahlo, uma mistura de morango, abacaxi, manga, uma calda suculenta de maracujá, sorvete de creme e é finalizado com uma cobertura de marshmallow. O restaurante ainda tem o serviço a la carte e rodízios aos domingos.

Here it is! This is Part 2 of 2 on challenging our conceptions of feminism and femininity. Part 1 may be found here.

In Part 1, we discussed how femininity and feminism are not antithetical to one another, as inspired by this Feministing post. Here, I want to discuss the image and presentation of femininity, and how it influences our perceptions.

One of the tumblrs that I follow is La Douleur Exquise by Miss Wallflower that is basically a celebration of all things feminine. Every day dozens of pictures are uploaded that reflect the general theme, emphasizing fashion photography, bon bons, woodland creatures, books, tea and inspirational quotes. I am acutely aware of its flaws. The majority of women featured are white and waif-like. It emphasizes traditional gender roles and promotes women’s sexuality and aesthetic appeal as their primary quality. But for its artistic merit, it also forces me to confront these images, and question how their meaning is received today.

My feminist theory professor was also really into art, so receiving the presentation and questioning the meaning of these images goes hand in hand with cultural feminism for me. For example, here are a few photographs that piqued my interest:

Here, she’s kissing him. Subject-Verb-Object (props to any who get the reference to Catherine MacKinnon). I like this picture because it doesn’t necessarily convey traditional power dynamics. It’s true that he’s still in a suit, and she’s still in a dress, but to me this image speaks to a more balanced relationship than traditional feminine dependence.

This is in a typical artsy fashion spread style with the addition of a woodland creature (I find the ‘insert woodland creature’ trend to be hilarious). She looks angry, but I can’t tell if it’s because they made her wear the stupid dress or if she had a fight with the deer. OR perhaps she’s pissed about the Stupak amendment threatening her reproductive rights.

This image brought a number of questions to mind. Why is she almost naked? Is it really necessary for her to be naked? Does she want to be naked? Why shouldn’t she be naked? The appropriation of women’s bodies sometimes leads to a certain disconnect with the body as not one’s own. When it is naked, it is usually for someone else’s consumption. So what does it really mean for a woman to be naked in an image? Or more importantly, how do we communicate with and through our bodies in everyday life?

There are a number of book and reading themed images. I like this one from the movie Matilda. On the one hand, reading can be interpreted as feminine through its apparent passiveness as an activity. For me, reading is revolutionary. It empowers our imaginations and challenges our assumptions. It opens us to new worlds, adventures and possibilities. It brought me to feminism.

Finally, here is one of the few women of colour who are featured. Frida Kahlo was an incredible female artist in the 20th century who communicated her experience through the medium of her art. She’s featured more than once in Miss Wallflower’s tumblr, as are other female artists. I think this really speaks to the importance of female self-expression, as well as non-traditional standards of ‘beauty’.

There are thousands and thousands of images. I encourage you to check them out yourself, and ask your own questions about how they convey their meaning to you. In the end, I would argue that it is not femininity itself, but our perceptions of femininity that shape how we feel about it. Do we choose to see its strength or passivity? Expression or repression?

Most importantly, how can we shape the modern interpretation into something we’re comfortable with?

~Bex

Sylvia Ji, »La Catrina«

Heute ist Totensonntag, der letzte Sonntag im Kirchenjahr. Ich werde heute Nachmittag in der Kreuzkirche Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem im Konzert hören (mit dem Chorknaben unter den Sängern). Es ist für mich das dritte Mal, daß ich diese bewegende Komposition an diesem Ort erlebe – inzwischen ist es Teil „meines“ Dresdens geworden. Ich kann mich nicht erinnern, wann mich der Chor „Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras“* jemals nicht zu Tränen bewegt hätte. Stets erinnert es mich daran, wie kurz, wie nichtig, aber auch wie kostbar unser Leben ist – und ich fühle mich aufgehoben …

Halloween, Totensonntag/Ewigkeitssonntag, Allerheiligen/Allerseelen: an diesen Feiertagen setzen sich die Christen mit dem Tod auseinander.**

Einer grundsätzlich anderen Begegnung mit dem Tod in fremden Kulturkreisen bin ich in dieser Woche ja bereits nachgegangen („Von Weißen Frauen & schwarzen Tauben“).

Eine zentrale Figur hierbei ist „La Catrina“, was in diesem Fall nicht „Die Reine“, sondern „Die Vornehme, Eitle“ bedeutet. „La Catrina” geht zurück auf eine Serie von Radierungen José Guadalupe Posadas, in der er 1913 die dekadente mexikanische Oberschicht karikierte.

José Guadalupe Posada, »La Catrina« (1913)

Diese Figur wirkt bis heute in der Populärkultur nach; so hat sie z. B. Tim Burtons Werk nachhaltig beeinflußt.

Neben dem Wieder- und Wiederhören von Elliot Goldenthals Frida-Soundtrack wurde meine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema des „Dia de los Muertos“ vor allem von Photographien des Künstlers John Rees angestoßen. Diese Frauengestalten wirken trotz ihrer Fleischlichkeit wie diaphane Geistererscheinungen oder Verstorbene, die uns auf alten Sepiaporträts entgegenblicken:

John Rees, »Dia de los Muertos« (2008)

[Klick vergrößert Bilder.]

[via]

Natürlich haben auch die beiden mexikanischen Künstler par excellence, Frida Kahlo und Diego Rivera, regen Gebrauch von dieser indigenen Folklore gemacht:

Diego Rivera, »Sonntagsträumerei in der Alameda« (Detail) (1948)

Ich wünsche allen einen besinnlichen, schönen Sonntag!

Obra de Mel Ramos, um dos grandes da Pop Art

A VIBRANTE DISCUSSÃO travada neste blogue, no texto anterior, me levou a abrir um fórum. Citei uma personagem de Milan Kundera, uma mulher que, habituada a ser admirada e objeto de assovios para onde quer que transportasse sua graça petulante de fêmea, entra em desespero quando os homens na rua, antes tão fascinados, ficam indiferentes a ela.

Tio Fabio, falecido homem sábio do interior, dizia que o poema mais sublime escrito pelo poeta mais inspirado não se compara, como homenagem, a um simples ‘gostosa’ que chega repentina e espontaneamente ao ouvido enfeitado por um brinco de uma mulher numa caminhada urbana, rural ou até aquática.

A eletrizante questão que emergiu do debate: a mulher prefere ser vista ou ouvida? Admirada pela beleza interior, como a pintora mexicana Frida Kahlo, lá para baixo num auto-retrato, ou, como a mulher desta da obra de Mel Ramos, um gênio de quem tenho um livro da Taschen com seu traço soberbo, pela beleza exterior?

O ideal é uma terceira alternativa. Já estou ouvindo gritos de mulheres dizendo: “Fabio, queremos ser reconhecidas interior e exteriormente.’ Eu também, se isso consola. Mas o mundo, infelizmente, não é perfeito.

Importante: beleza interior captura muitos homens. Com seu bigode e sobrancelha de Monteiro Lobato, Frida conquistou alguns dos homens mas interessantes de sua época, como Rivera, o muralista revolucionário, e Trótski, o chefe comunista que perdeu a disputa pelo poder para Stálin e foi parar no México, onde foi assassinado a mando dele, Stálin.

Posto isso, o que diz mais para uma mulher: admirarem suas frases espirituosas ou suas curvas de fazer bispo olhar para trás e chutar poste? Ou isto ou aquilo, para lembrar um poema sábio e simples de Cecília Meireles.

Eis o poema:

Ou se tem chuva e não se tem sol,
ou se tem sol e não se tem chuva!

Ou se calça a luva e não se põe o anel,
ou se põe o anel e não se calça a luva!

Quem sobe nos ares não fica no chão,
quem fica no chão não sobe nos ares.

É uma grande pena que não se possa
estar ao mesmo tempo nos dois lugares!

Ou guardo o dinheiro e não compro o doce,
ou compro o doce e gasto o dinheiro.

Ou isto ou aquilo: ou isto ou aquilo…
e vivo escolhendo o dia inteiro!

Não sei se brinco, não sei se estudo,
se saio correndo ou fico tranqüilo.

Mas não consegui entender ainda
qual é melhor: se é isto ou aquilo

Bem, estou aqui na arquibancada, com a camisa do Corinthians, pronto para ver o espetáculo imperdível das discussões entre fêmeas opiniáticas, dispersivas, surpreendentes, variadas — e brilhantes.

Ou isto ou aquilo?

FRIDA KAHLO / Barbara / 22.11.2009

Magdalena del Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón (* 6. Juli 1907 in Coyoacán im “Blauen Haus”, Mexiko-Stadt; † 13. Juli 1954 in Mexiko-Stadt) war eine mexikanische Malerin. Sie zählt zu den bedeutendsten Vertreterinnen einer volkstümlichen Entfaltung des Surrealismus und ist die mit Abstand bekannteste Malerin Mexikos, wenn nicht sogar Lateinamerikas. Ihre Bilder wurden von der mexikanischen Regierung offiziell zum „nationalen Kulturgut“ erklärt. Ihr Ganzkörper-Selbstbildnis Roots erzielte im Mai 2006 einen Versteigerungserlös von 5,6 Millionen US-Dollar und gilt damit als das bislang teuerste Bild eines lateinamerikanischen Künstlers.

Zu ihrem Mythos hat ihr bewegtes Leben beigetragen: ihre Krankheit, ihre Leiden, ihre Ehe mit Diego Rivera, dessen Untreue und ihre Affären. Hinzu kommen ihr revolutionärer Eifer und ein leidenschaftlicher Nationalismus.

Selbstporträt als Engel aus einem ihrer Tagebücher

Offizielle Webseite in Englisch und Spanisch:
Frida Kahlo Corporation

Webseite auf Englisch und Spanisch:
Frida Kahlo Fans

Andere Links:
Wikipedia: Frida Kahlo
Frida-Kahlo-Engel als Anziehpuppe

Lots of lovely pictures and paintings but turn of the sound.

This new book, Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver looks interesting.

Kingsolver doesn’t appear to suffer from writer’s block and she certainly hasn’t been twiddling her thumbs. Her understanding of Mexico and Spanish in The Lacuna are exemplary, and she must have researched deeply into the lives of Kahlo, Rivera, and Leon “Lev” Trotsky during the time he was one of Kahlo’s lovers. She doesn’t distort them into flawless heroes. They’re iconic figures, but portrayed warts and all: love affairs and self-obsession and revolutionary contradictions on all sides.

I haven’t yet read this review by Tariq Ali of Patenaude’s Stalin’s Nemesis and Robert Service’s Trotsky: A Biography. If anyone reads it, tell me if I should bother.

Natalia and Leon Trotsky arriving in Tampico, Mexico, January 9, 1937, greeted by artist Frida Kahlo, center.

“Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky Between the Curtains,” by Frida Kahlo, 1937

Casa museo Trotsky, Ciudad de México, Museum at Trotsky’s home, Mexico City. Trotsky y Diego Rivera

Casa museo Trotsky, Ciudad de México, Museum at Trotsky’s home, Mexico City

Leon Trotsky on his Deathbed, August 21, 1940

Images and captions from Lisa Waller Rogers and Hanneorla.

Sitting in a corner at a Chicago Starbuck’s, waiting for the Art Institute of Chicago to open, Josephine Baker is on my mind, as is the bisexuality of many infamous seducers and female icons. Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Josephine Baker, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe, Virginia Woolf… many many writers. It’s as if artistic sensibility makes what has been dubbed sexual deviation acceptable… but much more so for women. The women I write of were powerful, the masses hungered for them, and from the way history wrote them, few were shocked or scandalized by their sexuality. And yet, if Lindsay Lohan is in what’s clearly a complex relationship with a woman, it stirs a media frenzy… not necessarily a negative one, but still, why all the excitement? This isn’t a complete thought, but it is something my Phoeber and I were discussing last night. The straight community sees bisexuality as an outlet of heterosexuality, conducive to threesomes. The gay community often treats it as a step out of the closet for one who wants to maintain heterosexual privilege. It’s an odd conundrum that the quote about Baker toes:

From Wikipedia (Josephine baker article):

There also is evidence to support that she was bisexual. In the book about her life, titled Josephine: The Hungry Heart written by her son and author Jean-Claude Baker, he states that she was involved in numerous lesbian affairs, both while she was single and married, and he mentions six of her female lovers by name. Clara Smith, Evelyn Sheppard, Bessie Allison, Ada “Bricktop” Smith, and Mildred Smallwood were all African-American women she met while touring on the black performing circuit early in her career. She was also involved with writer Colette, and possibly with Caroline Dudley Reagan, who ran the Paris extravaganza La Revue Nègre. Not mentioned, but confirmed since, was her affair with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Baker wrote that affairs with women were not uncommon with Josephine throughout her lifetime.

Despite the fact that he was her son, Jean-Claude Baker interviewed over 2,000 people while writing his book. He was quoted in one interview as saying, “She was what today you would call bisexual, and I will tell you why. Forget that I am her son, I am also a historian. You have to put her back into the context of the time in which she lived. In those days, Chorus Girls were abused by the white or black producers and by the leading men if he liked girls. But they could not sleep together because there were not enough hotels to accommodate black people. So they would all stay together, and the girls would develop lady lover friendships, do you understand my English? But wait wait…If one of the girls by preference was gay, she’d be called a bull dyke by the whole cast. So you see, descrimination is everywhere.”

Julian Humphries - with Nettie R. Harris

Ursprünglich war heute in dieser Rubrik bereits ein andere Beitrag erschienen, den ich vor etlichen Tagen vorbereitet hatte. Leider war mir damals nicht bewußt, daß heute in Sachsen als einzigem Bundesland der Buß- und Bettag begangen wird. Hätte ich gestern nicht in den Tango-Kalender geschaut, wüßte ich nicht, daß an diesem sogenannten „Stillen Tag“ Tanzverbot herrscht. Unter diesem Gesichtspunkt ziehe ich einen anderen Beitrag vor.

Frida Kahlo, »Mädchen mit Totenmaske« (1938). Öl auf Metall. 19,8 x 14,7 cm. Privatbesitz.

[via]

„¡Viva México!“, mit diesem Ausspruch verbindet man die Lebensfreude eines ganzen Landes. Doch bin ich gerade dabei, zu entdecken, daß diese sich sogar auf die Art erstreckt, wie man mit dem Tod umgeht.

In Mexiko gibt es nach wie vor Gebräuche, die, zurückgehend auf aztekische Traditionen, den Tod weniger tabuisieren, als ihn als Teil des Lebens zu feiern. (Das spätmittelalterliche Europa weist erstaunliche Parallelen z. B. in der Kultur der „Totentänze“ auf. Einen interessanten Artikel zur Kultur des Todes in Mexiko findet man hier.)

Auch musikalisch gebar die Beschäftigung mit Tod, Leid und Verlust in Mexiko ein reiches, eigenständiges Erbe. Zunächst möchte ich einen Ausschnitt aus dem preisgekrönten Kurzfilm Hasta Los Huesos (etwa: „Bis auf die Knochen“) von Regisseur René Castillo vorstellen. (Den zehnminütigen Fim kann man sich hier anschauen.)

„La Llorona“ – Die Weinende

Die Weinende, La Llorona, ist eine mythische Figur lateinamerikanischer Folklore. Genau genommen handelt es sich um den Geist einer Frau, die ihre Kinder beweint, die sie in einem Fluß ertränkte. Ihre Erscheinung gilt meist als Vorbote des Todes.

Anhand des Liedes „La Llorona” möchte ich drei der berühmtesten Sängerinnen Mexikos vorstellen: Chavela Vargas, Eugenia Léon und Lila Downs.

Eugenia Léon, die Liedermacherin, die der Animationsfigur ihre Stimme lieh, ist eine der wichtigsten Vertreterinnen der sogenannten „Nueva Cancíon“, einem in den Siebzigerjahren entstandenen Genre, das alte Volksweisen mit einer gesellschaftskritischen, politischen Agenda verschmilzt. (Hierzulande ist m. E. Mercedes Sosa die bekannteste Vertreterin. In diesem Zusammenhang würde mich interessieren, ob man die lateinamerikanischen Liedermacher in der DDR vermehrt rezipierte.) Die große Bühnenpräsenz Eugenia Léons wird in der Live-Aufnahme von „La Llorona“spürbar.

Einem breiteren Publikum wurde „La Llorona“ durch den Film Frida bekannt, wo Chavela Vargas, lebende Legende und die berühmteste Stimme Mexikos, den Tod spielte.

Die für mich beeindruckendste Stimme unter den mexikanischen Sängerinnen gehört der in in US-Amerika geborenen Lila Downs. Die gerade mal Vierzigjährige wirkt auf mich merkwürdig mädchenhaft und doch uralt – es ist ihrer einzigartigen Stimme geschuldet.

„La Bruja“ – Die Hexe

Ein weiteres, sehr bekanntes Lied ist „La Bruja“. Salma Hayek singt es in der Rolle Frida Kahlos. (Auf Milongas ist es ab und zu als Non-Vals zu hören.)

In der gemeinsamen Interpretation von Lila Downs und Eugenia Léons wird daraus ein Gipfeltreffen, das weniger von Rivalität als von gegenseitiger Wertschätzung geprägt scheint. Ein toller Live-Mitschnitt! (Ich brauche so einen Rock, wie Lila Downs ihn trägt. Ja, brauche!)

„Paloma Negra“ – Schwarze Taube

Ein drittes Lied, das durch Frida populär wurde, ist „Paloma Negra“, wiederum gesungen von Chavela Vargas. Darin klagt ein Verlassener über den Verlust seiner Liebsten, seines schwarzen Täubchens. (Von der Filmversion scheint im Netz kein Clip zu existieren; man kann sie sich aber hier und hier in zwei schönen Frida-Kahlo-User-Tribute-Videos anhören.)

Ich möchte den Song in einer weiteren Live-Aufnahme mit Lila Downs vorstellen. Ohne übertreiben zu wollen: Wenn ich sie singen höre, ist mir, als flösse durch sie ein ganzes Menschheitsgedächtnis an Krieg und Leid, Frieden und Liebe.

Meine Auseinandersetzung mit der mexikanischen Kultur (die zugegebenermaßen nur einen kleinen Ausschnitt der unglaublichen Vielfalt an Künstlern und Liedern vorstellen konnte – schließlich bin ich keine Expertin, und der Beitrag spiegelt meine Begegnung mit dem Thema fast in Echtzeit wieder) werde ich am kommenden Sonntag, dem Totensonntag fortsetzen; dann allerdings in der Rubrik „Schönes am Sonntag“. Ich kann schon jetzt versprechen, daß es sehr, sehr beeindruckende Bilder von ganz unterschiedlichen Künstlern zu sehen geben wird.

PS Als Bonus (da sie keine Mexikanerin ist und einen etwas anderen Musikstil pflegt) möchte ich noch die junge Argentinierin Georgina Hassan mit ihrer Interpretation von „La Llorona“ als unterkühlter Cool-Jazz-Nummer vorstellen:

"The Broken Column," by Frida Kahlo (1944). This self-portrait shows the artist's spine as a broken Ionic column. By 1944, Frida's health had deteriorated to such a degree that she had to wear a steel corset to sit up. Her persistent health problems stemmed from childhood polio, a traffic accident, and botched spinal surgeries.

For her entire adult life, artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) suffered unbearable pain from her spine and foot. (See “Frida’s First Bad Accident.”) She endured over thirty surgeries to correct the problem (in both Mexico and the U.S), was subjected to batteries of tests, X-rays, and spinal taps, given blood transfusions, physical therapy, and strong medicine . Yet, despite such extreme measures, Frida’s health continued to deteriorate.

After 1944, Frida’s doctors prescribed months of  bed rest, encasing her tortured body in a succession of plaster or steel corsets that helped her to sit or stand. Frida described these corsets and the treatments that accompanied them as “punishment.”

“There were twenty-eight corsets in all–one made of steel, three of leather, and the rest of plaster. One…allowed her neither to sit nor to recline. It made her so angry that she took it off, and used a sash to tie her torso to the back of a chair in order to support her spine.

There was a time when she spent three months in a nearly vertical position with sacks of sand attached to her feet to straighten out her spinal column. Another time, Adelina Zendejas, visiting her in the hospital after an operation, found her hanging from steel rings with her feet just able to touch the ground. Her easel was in front of her. “We were horrified,” Zendejas recalls. “She was painting and telling jokes and funny stories….”

Yet another gruesome tale comes from Frida’s friend the pianist Ella Paresce. A Spanish doctor who knew nothing about orthopedics put a plaster corset on Frida….”[D]uring the night, the corset began to harden, as it was supposed to do. I happened to be spending the night there in the next room, and about half past four or five in the morning, I heard a crying, nearly shrieks. I jumped out of the bed and went in, and there was Frida saying she couldn’t breathe!….The corset had hardened…so much that it pressed her lungs. It made pleats all around her body. So I tried to get a doctor. Nobody would pay any attention at that hour…so…I took a razor blade…and made about a two-inch cut [in the cast over her chest] so that she could breathe….[S]he painted the corset, which is still visible in the museum in Coyoacán.” (1)

Diego kisses Frida at the ABC Hospital 1950

In the photo here, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera tenderly kisses his wife Frida Kahlo at the Hospital Ingles ABC in Mexico City, 1950. Frida’s botched spinal fusion of 1946 began the “calvary that would lead to the end,” said her friend Cachucha Miguel N. Lira. Her leg was in constant pain. Four toes on her right foot had turned black; gangrene had set in. An amputation was advised. Frida spent a year in the hospital. In the photo, notice that Frida had painted the Communist symbols, a hammer and sickle on her plaster corset. Visitors also signed Frida’s corsets and decorated them with feathers, mirrors, photographs, pebbles, and ink. When Frida’s doctors removed her paints from her sick room, instead, she used lipstick and iodine to paint her cast. (1)

(1) Herrera, Hayden. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo.New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1983.

Readers, for more on Frida Kahlo, scroll down the right sidebar: Categories/People/Frida Kahlo. Enjoy!

This Autumn’s Tuesday evening lecture series – The Canvas Ceiling, starting on January 12th, includes: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman? ; Frida Kahlo – a life on canvas ; Art and the F-Word: Feminism ; Modern Mothers ; Georgia O’Keeffe ; “Mad Tracey from Margate”

This series examines the involvement of women in art, not as models to be painted by men for men, but as significant artists in their own right. From the 17th century to the early 20th, female artists were very much in the minority. Two women were amongst the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768, but it was 168 years before another woman was permitted to add ‘RA’ to her name.

Read on for more details and tickets
Please note that sales of just this series will start on December 15 at the Gallery desk and by phone 020 8299 8750. Tuesday evening lecture series: Jan 12 to Feb 23 2010 The Canvas Ceiling: Women Artists through the ages 7.45-9.15 pm/Linbury Room
Series of 6 lectures £50, £40 Friends Single lectures £10, £8
Friends Bar and book sales in the interval

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman?
Tuesday 12 January
Lecturer: Jo Walton
In this lecture we’ll discover some of the powerful and determined women who forged careers for themselves as artists. The realm of home and family may have provided subject matter for some, but others tackled Biblical violence, military disaster, emerging technology and the glamour of High Society. It’s all a long way from a cultivated lady doing a little light sketching as one of her many accomplishments.

Frida Kahlo – a life on canvas
Tuesday 19 January
Lecturer: Frank Woodgate
After a terrible accident as a child, FridaKahlo was seldom without pain, and she charted her life, including her two marriages to the same man, Diego Rivera, through a series of fascinating and revelatory self-portraits and other colourful (and sometimes disturbing) works. As well as illustrating her personal agonies and ecstasies, her art reflected her attitude to pre-Columbian tradition, capitalism and Communism. “We can’t get even, so we’re gonna get mad.”

Art and the F-Word: Feminism
Tuesday 26 January
Lecturer: Linda Smith
After many years of agitation, feminism has managed to achieve major legislative changes in many parts of the world. As all women know, however, changing the law is one thing, but changing attitudes and cultural practice is quite another. Feminism in art has used various strategies, ranging from humour and irony through to confrontation and downright belligerence. This lecture will look at some key artists and their work, and ask questions about what kind of impact feminism has had on art, and whether overt political content compromises artistic integrity.

Modern Mothers
Tuesday 2 February
Lecturer: Melanie Paice
Modern portrayals of motherhood by women artists are far removed from traditional images such as the Madonna and child. Today we are presented with everything from giant spiders to candid photographs taken one hour, one day and one week after giving birth. What are these artists telling us about their view of the relationship of mother and child?

Georgia O’Keeffe
Tuesday 16 February
Lecturer: Peter Scott
Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most popular artists in America, known principally for her semi-abstract paintings of Nature, particularly flowers, which are said to contain strong erotic undertones. However, during her 70 years as an artist, she produced works of great originality, variety and complexity. Conventionally trained in the most prestigious art schools in the United States, she developed her unique style after studying Kandinsky’s works and writings and coming under the influence of Alfred Stieglitz, the great photographer and gallerist. This lecture aims to explore some of the life and work of this eccentric and pioneering woman.

“Mad Tracey from Margate”
Tuesday 23 February
Lecturer: Rosalind Whyte
Tracey Emin shot to fame and notoriety with My Bed in 1999. She has since earned fortune and criticism in virtually equal measure. She is frequently accused of being self-indulgent because of the autobiographical nature of much of her work, yet many artists have used their life experiences to inform their work (including Frida Kahlo from earlier in the series), without attracting the criticism of self-obsession. This lecture looks at some aspects of what is a wide- ranging and varied body of work, and seeks to examine some of the reasons behind the antagonism Emin faces. All the speakers lecture extensively for Tate Britain, Tate Modern, throughout Britain and internationally.

Find out more about events and lectures at Dulwich Picture Gallery>

This Autumn’s Tuesday evening lecture series – The Canvas Ceiling, starting on January 12th, includes: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman? ; Frida Kahlo – a life on canvas ; Art and the F-Word: Feminism ; Modern Mothers ; Georgia O’Keeffe ; “Mad Tracey from Margate”

This series examines the involvement of women in art, not as models to be painted by men for men, but as significant artists in their own right. From the 17th century to the early 20th, female artists were very much in the minority. Two women were amongst the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768, but it was 168 years before another woman was permitted to add ‘RA’ to her name.

Read on for more details and tickets
Please note that sales of just this series will start on December 15 at the Gallery desk and by phone 020 8299 8750. Tuesday evening lecture series: Jan 12 to Feb 23 2010 The Canvas Ceiling: Women Artists through the ages 7.45-9.15 pm/Linbury Room
Series of 6 lectures £50, £40 Friends Single lectures £10, £8
Friends Bar and book sales in the interval

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman?
Tuesday 12 January
Lecturer: Jo Walton
In this lecture we’ll discover some of the powerful and determined women who forged careers for themselves as artists. The realm of home and family may have provided subject matter for some, but others tackled Biblical violence, military disaster, emerging technology and the glamour of High Society. It’s all a long way from a cultivated lady doing a little light sketching as one of her many accomplishments.

Frida Kahlo – a life on canvas
Tuesday 19 January
Lecturer: Frank Woodgate
After a terrible accident as a child, FridaKahlo was seldom without pain, and she charted her life, including her two marriages to the same man, Diego Rivera, through a series of fascinating and revelatory self-portraits and other colourful (and sometimes disturbing) works. As well as illustrating her personal agonies and ecstasies, her art reflected her attitude to pre-Columbian tradition, capitalism and Communism. “We can’t get even, so we’re gonna get mad.”

Art and the F-Word: Feminism
Tuesday 26 January
Lecturer: Linda Smith
After many years of agitation, feminism has managed to achieve major legislative changes in many parts of the world. As all women know, however, changing the law is one thing, but changing attitudes and cultural practice is quite another. Feminism in art has used various strategies, ranging from humour and irony through to confrontation and downright belligerence. This lecture will look at some key artists and their work, and ask questions about what kind of impact feminism has had on art, and whether overt political content compromises artistic integrity.

Modern Mothers
Tuesday 2 February
Lecturer: Melanie Paice
Modern portrayals of motherhood by women artists are far removed from traditional images such as the Madonna and child. Today we are presented with everything from giant spiders to candid photographs taken one hour, one day and one week after giving birth. What are these artists telling us about their view of the relationship of mother and child?

Georgia O’Keeffe
Tuesday 16 February
Lecturer: Peter Scott
Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most popular artists in America, known principally for her semi-abstract paintings of Nature, particularly flowers, which are said to contain strong erotic undertones. However, during her 70 years as an artist, she produced works of great originality, variety and complexity. Conventionally trained in the most prestigious art schools in the United States, she developed her unique style after studying Kandinsky’s works and writings and coming under the influence of Alfred Stieglitz, the great photographer and gallerist. This lecture aims to explore some of the life and work of this eccentric and pioneering woman.

“Mad Tracey from Margate”
Tuesday 23 February
Lecturer: Rosalind Whyte
Tracey Emin shot to fame and notoriety with My Bed in 1999. She has since earned fortune and criticism in virtually equal measure. She is frequently accused of being self-indulgent because of the autobiographical nature of much of her work, yet many artists have used their life experiences to inform their work (including Frida Kahlo from earlier in the series), without attracting the criticism of self-obsession. This lecture looks at some aspects of what is a wide- ranging and varied body of work, and seeks to examine some of the reasons behind the antagonism Emin faces. All the speakers lecture extensively for Tate Britain, Tate Modern, throughout Britain and internationally.

Find out more about events and lectures at Dulwich Picture Gallery>

‘You had better write all this in your notebook, she said, the story of what happened to us in Mexico. So when nothing is left of us but bones, someone will know where we went.’ Born in the US, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is mostly a liability to his social-climbing mother, Salome. From a coastal island jungle to the unpaved neighbourhoods of 1930s Mexico City, his fortunes never steady as Salome finds her rich men-friends always on the losing side of the Mexican Revolution. He aims for invisibility, observing his world and recording everything with a peculiar selfless irony in his notebooks.

Life is whatever he learns from servants putting him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Making himself useful in the household of the muralist, his wife Frida Kahlo, and exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky, young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot in with art and revolution.

A violent upheaval sends him north to a nation newly caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. In Carolina, he remakes himself in America’s hopeful image. Under the watch of his peerless stenographer, Violet Brown, he finds an extraordinary use for his talents of observation. But political winds continue to push him between north and south, in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach – the lacuna – between truth and public presumption.

The Lacuna is a gripping story of identity, connection with our past, and the power of words to create or devastate. Crossing two decades, from the vibrant revolutionary murals of Mexico City to the halls of a Congress bent on eradicating the colour red, The Lacuna is as deep and rich as the New World itself.

Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 and grew up in eastern Kentucky. Her books include poetry, non-fiction and award-winning fiction, and in 1999 she was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for The Poisonwood Bible.

Only at page 50 but already enjoying it! Since the The Poisonwood Bible, I’ve read anything that Barbara Kingsolver has wriitten. And intrigued to see this book involves artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

Ya en el centro de Coyoacán además de comprar artesanías en el mercado o frutas deliciosas en el otro mercado, puedes disfrutar de un elote con mayonesa y limón o con sólo limón y sal que esta hervidos o tostados pero de cualquier manera saben delicioso, si esto no es lo tuyo una deliciosa nieve en la tradicional Siberia del centro de Coyoacán o una nieve enchilada o de chamoy en Tepoznieves a un par de cuadras de ahí. Los globos y las palomas forman parte del escenario tradicional en el centro al igual que los algodones de dulce y de paso los dulces mexicanos. La casa de Frida Kahlo y la Catedral del  centro también son dignas de una buena parte de tu paseo por Coyoacán, siempre lleno de locales, turistas y personas a las que nos gusta ir a pasear en la Ciudad con un poco de sabor a provincia.

http://www.mexicocity.com.mx/coyoac.html

Providence, 2007.

• Stephen Colbert takes on Sesame Street and Pox News.
• Cookie Monster talks about the origin of “OM NOM NOM!”
• Last Sesame Street related post: in response to South Africa’s HIV+ muppet Kami, Jezebel wonders, how young is too young to teach children about AIDS?
• Susan Striker’s 10 Cardinal Rules for Teaching Creative Art. Excellent read about working artistically with kids! I do my best to abide by these rules, but I’ll admit that coloring books are my Achilles Heel. I’m 28 and I still have coloring books of my own, I love them.
• Frida Kahlo’s Studio Dollhouse: Perhaps the greatest dollhouse EVER.
• 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son: “Let’s get this straight before I get old and uncool.”
• Art in All of Us: Gallery of children’s art from around the world!
• Newborn babies cry with mother’s accent: I guess I’ll have some American crying babies. If they cried with their father’s accent… my future babies would be way sexier. *sigh* No Portuguese accent for you, babies, I’m sorry.

How could I resist a photo on 11/10/09 at 8:07?

Frida was happy to sit for the portrait.

The eyes have it.

Frida Kahlo, New York, 1939, photo by Nicholas Muray. She sits on a white bench, wearing traditional Mexican clothes in the heavily ornamented and embroidered style that became her signature.

“Frida was often heard to say, ‘I look like a lot of people and a few things,’ as if everything that made up her personal appearance was a matter of chance. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Dressing each day was an almost ceremonial affair during which she would try innumerable combinations of blouses and skirts. Her clothes were always immaculately clean and freshly ironed; she was meticulous about the appearance of her pleated petticoats, pure white and starched. She wore native Mexican costumes long after her sophisticated friends had given up this nationalistic gesture, in part for the long skirts that hid her thin leg [from childhood polio] and orthopedic shoe [from a bus accident]….

Frida selected her jewelry each day with equal care, especially the rings she wore on the fingers of both hands. She meticulously applied her make-up and painted her fingernails, sometimes purple, green, or orange….Only a little over 5′ 2″ tall, she seemed taller bcause of the heightening effect of her long skirts, accentuated even more by her elegantly long neck and her upswept hairdo with bows and flowers arranged on top of her head. Her olive skin was covered with a light fuzz; her upper lip had a pronounced moustache, which she made obvious in her self-portraits. The heavy dark eyebrows that grew together across her forehead she turned into a trademark….

When she was finally finished dressing, she looked “like a princess, like an empress’….Scrupulously clean and heavily perfumed…” (1)

Frida Kahlo smoking, photo by her friend and lover, Nickolas Muray, ca. 1940

Frida was a heavy smoker and is often photographed holding a lit, unfiltered cigarette. She seldom smiled for the camera – with good reason. The few photos that have caught her laughing reveal blackened teeth.

(1) Zamora, Martha. Frida Kahlo: The Brush of Anguish. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1990.

Readers: For more posts on Frida, scroll down the right sidebar – Categories/People/Frida Kahlo.

How could I resist a photo on 11/10/09 at 8:07?

Frida was happy to sit for the portrait.

The eyes have it.