Sunday, July 1, 2012

Danica's book, Frida Kahlo theme


My contribution in Danica's book on the Frida Kahlo theme.

I tried a self-portrait, as most of Frida's paintings are self portrait illustrating her sorrows, pains, questions... with greenery around, like she also did in her paintings.
It must be one of the most difficult paintings in my life!! I never did a self-portrait and find it doesn't quite looks like me...

My right hand side is colored, and my left hand side is black and white. It must be because I sometimes feel incomplete. Sometimes, not the whole time, because I am smiling anyway and it doesn't make me feel unhappy. Mostly frustrated or melancholic sometimes, and it questions me. I am 40 now and my biological clock ticked away my possibility of having any children.
From my belly grows a tree of endometriosis. 
Especially the media and community that makes me feel like an incomplete woman because I don't have any children. Women are supposed to have children, don't they?
But I'm a happy woman anyway and there's soooo much to do in this world to make it a nicer place for other people's great children to grow up :-)




5 comments:

Unknown said...

wow! beautiful! I love how everyone is making such a thoughtful entries in my frida book. Thank you very much :)

Nat said...

Wooow!!! Barbara, c'est incroyable! le dessin, et le conteste... ce molly me fait peur deja car je me sens obligee maintenant de raconter qqch perso sur moi... :)
et je pense aussi que ton talent est une compensation pour des enfant, parce que tu es tres tres douee!

Nat said...

sorry, wrote in french. Just want to say that it's an amazing contribution in a very amazing and special moly. Moly fool of our stories...
I'm ready to start the mine :)

The Speckled Sink said...

This is so beautiful. There is something very vulnerable in Frida's work and I feel like you really captured that. I often talk to my upper level high school students about how Frida's fertility is documented and evidenced in the work. They just want to talk about the "unibrow" girl and I make them dig deeper. So lovely.

barbaraluel said...

Thank you all very much!