2009 December 15 « Lacy's Blog

Archive for December 15th, 2009

I Paint Self Portraits Because…

…I am the person I know best.”

These honest words were spoken by the very talented Frida Kahlo. If anyone is to have a story to tell, it would be Kahlo, whether in painting, literature or music. She was the daughter of a Hungarian-Jewish man and a Spanish/Mexican/Indian woman. Being the survivor of polio, she was involved in a very serious bus accident that fractured multiple bones and shattered her pelvis. This made her incapable of bearing children, and she constantly suffered from frequent pains in relation to the severe damage done to her body.

In her painting of The Little Deer (1946) Kahlo portrays herself as the animal stuck with multiple arrows, leaving her to die in the middle of the forest. Because she knew herself better than anything else, that it was Kahlo chose to paint. Most of her paintings were very symbolic of her struggles and the pain that she constantly dealt with after the accident. In this painting, the arrows appear to be located at very strategic places on the animal’s body, coinciding with the sources of her pain.

I am very intrigued by Kahlo’s work because she wasn’t afraid to openly express her agony through her artwork. The woman went through hell and was able to become well-known because of it. Not many people would keep on thriving after incidents that Kahlo dealt with. Rather, we would have wasted away without leaving a legacy for others to appreciate. Some of her artwork may be honest and gruesome, but it relays her emotions to the audience, allowing us to sympathize with her.

Source:

http://www.fridakahlo.com/

Add a comment December 15, 2009

From Violence to Valor

MEET THE ARTIST:

Gonçalo Mabunda was born in Mozambique and has only been a full-time artist since 1997. Previous to this exposure of African art, I had never heard of Mabunda. He focuses primarily on sculpture, but it is the materials used that make his work so incredibly fascinating. The scupltures aren’t just made from ordinary scrap metal, but from deactivated weapons that had been stock-piled and hidden during the civil war that divided Mozambique. His website states that he uses these materials of ”strong political connotations which carry collective memory.” For Mabunda it isn’t always about what he makes. Instead, it is more about the emotional story the materials have. The reason I chose not to pick one piece of his artwork is because they all are amazing. The symbolism behind these sculptures doesn’t pertain to the subject of the sculptures anyways. The first presentation of his artwork actually occured on the Africaserver in 1999, and since then his popularity has increased. I decided to share this artist simply because this man has managed to take something used for violence and turn it into something beautiful and enjoyable. It’s like taking evil and turning it into good.