12th Aug 2009
Good Girl Hall of Famer # 6: Frida Kahlo, Artist
Friday Kahlo was born in Coyoacan, Mexico, in 1907, the daughter of a German immigrant father and a native Mexican mother. After being in a serious bus accident in 1925, Frida suffered injuries that included a broken spine. For the rest of her life, she would have horrible problems with her health, enduing many surgeries and enforced bed rests. But Frida didn’t let this limitation stop her from becoming one of the best artists in the world. Married to the super-famous muralist Diego Rivera in 1929, Frida emerged from his shadow by painting small self-portraits, or autoretratos. Her images of herself aren’t glossy glamour paintings, but instead these incredibly honest descriptions of her painful, beautiful inner life. She shows herself with her tiny fuzzy mustache and monobrow (no waxing for her) – but instead of looking ugly, she’s completely stunning. Other paintings show her in fantastical settings, surrounded by monkeys, or wild plants, and her hair always dressed up in braids and ribbons. Frida also had this glorious fashion sense, and dressed up in indigenous peasant dress, accessorizing her skirts and shawls with tons of turquoise jewelry. Frida was a painting pioneer, because she worked so hard to tell the truth about the lives of women and girls. It’s not always pretty – though it usually is gorgeous; her work can be as raw as a nerve. If you want to honor the spirit of Frida today, paint your own self portrait. And don’t hold back a thing.
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bio
Yxta Maya Murray is a writer and a law professor living inLos Angeles with her husband Andrew and her two silky terriers, Sophie and Oscar. In January, she'll be publishing her first young adult novel, The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Kidnapped. The Good Girls' Guide tells the story of Michelle Peña, a foster kid, straight A student, and track star, who also happens to be East L.A.gang royalty. Michelle has abandoned her family's gang ways, and is the happy foster kid of a doctor named Frank Redman out in Westchester, California. However, she finds herself getting drawn back into that Life when she and her best friend Kiki are kidnapped by
a gang, "The Snakes," in retaliation for a drug debt
owed by her brother.