​Frida and her Doll' is painting #2 out of 3 in my Frida series for 2016. It  was inspired by two images; one a beautiful black and white photograph of her in a dress with intricate designs, and the second is an original painting of hers titled, "Me and my Doll".  When I first began this painting, I was only going to recreate her in the dress, but I felt something was missing.  In the preliminary sketch I put a couple of cats with her, and on the wall beside her was going to be a different original painting, created by her.  I changed my mind about the original painting, and decided to base it on her original titled, "Me and my Doll".  I identify with that one more, because my Mom was an avid doll collector, and I grew up with a lot of dolls.  I replaced the cats idea with inserting a baby doll; one created from my imagination to correspond with the doll in her painting.  These two subjects, then brought balance to the piece. I enjoyed coordinating the colors of her dress with the colors in her original painting.  

​Frida' completes my Frida series for 2016., #3 out of 3 paintings.   Again this painting was inspired by a black and white photograph of Frida Kahlo.  This time I was looking to paint a close up of the artist's face and torso.  I gave her a banner with her name inscribed, with two birds on either side, magically holding the ribbon.  One is black to represent her suffering, and the other right (flying higher) to represent the love that would triumph.  An interesting experience took place, while working on this painting.  I rescued a butterfly from the pool, that had two broken wings, but was still alive.  I tried to set it free, somewhere, but the poor thing could not fly.  I didn't want to leave it, and let it become food for a lizard, so I brought it inside in a make shift cage, and fed it over ripe strawberries.  The next day, it looked rather sad, so I took it outside and put it on my hand.  When  a breeze picked up, the butterfly (with two broken wings) miraculously flew up and off into the sky! I couldn't believe it!  This beautiful experience made an impression on me.  I  felt it was a special message.  It showed me that, despite our afflictions or brokenness, our will to live and love can overcome anything!  I thought this as I continued to paint, and just decided to put this message in the painting, because it too suited Frida's life.   I used a picture I took of the broken butterfly as reference, and put it at the top right hand corner of the painting.  It felt right and complete.