My seven page art dissertation was on Frida Kahlo. In high school on her way home from an apprenticeship the bus she was on collided with a streetcar, causing the handrail to lodge into her abdomen and exit her vagina. Her spine was broken in three places, her right foot was broken in eleven (dislocated and crushed), as were her ribs, collarbone and pelvic bone. Thirty two operations were needed throughout the duration of her life due to the crash, which she references in many of her works like the one above.
By some miracle she was able to get pregnant after suffering a multitude of miscarriages, but lost the baby at two months having never recovered from the bus accident. Henry Ford Hospital (painted in 1932) depicts her pain: the desire for a functioning uterus, the baby boy she hoped to have, a snail representing the slowness of the ordeal, her pelvic bone forever damaged, a purple orchid given to her by husband Diego Rivera while she was in the hospital and an autoclave, symbolizing the medical tools used. And at the center is Frida Kahlo, naked, bloody, exposed, filled with the sorrow of knowing motherhood would forever elude her. Through the catharsis of art she found the strength to endure both her emotional and physical trauma, becoming a legend and one of the most successful female artist in history.
If Frida could push through so can you. Start the week with her determination, hardiness and optimism that you can beat the odds and become something great. We tend to compare ourselves to others highlighting what we lack, but how often do you compare in terms of gratitude? Don’t take the simple things for granted, you are bountiful in ways others are not.
