"I paint self-portraits because I am the person I know best. I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other considerations"

- Frida Kahlo

When you hear the name Frida Kahlo, you think feminist, artist, and an inspiration to many. Frida Kahlo was a woman who had many talents. She is considered to be one of Mexico’s greatest artists who painted self-portraits that gave a true meaning to life. Her name is known all around the world. Her inspiration began after a tragic bus accident that she endured, which left her completely paralyzed and unable to give birth. Kahlo became extremely depressed and she needed an escape. She used art to portray her emotions and feelings in everyday life. Kahlo’s art depicted her narcissism, and it showed how she wanted the whole world to know who she was. Kahlo wanted everyone to feel the desperate love that she was looking for. Paintings like the Broken Column introduced the pain she was feeling and the woes that shattered her life.

Her obsession with independence became vital when she realized that she had no control over her body anymore. She wanted to prove to the world, and herself, that her talent was still alive, and she accomplished this by painting her feelings, emotions, and pain. In Necklace of Thorns, there is a lot of symbolism. The bird that symbolizes freedom and life shows that she had always possessed those joys with pride, but she felt that they were taken away after the accident; the bird is portrayed lifeless in the painting.

Lastly, the painting Roots displays how she could be the source of life feeding the parched earth. We can see she wanted to show that, even though she couldn’t bare any children, she could still give life and be useful in the world.

We see the blood flowing from her body and into the earth, and we see how she is a source of life. Kahlo was an unbelievable woman who demonstrated that, although her life was filled with a great amount of pain, both physically and emotionally, she did much more than anyone could have done in the state that she was in. Frida had the strength to turn her emotions and feelings into art. She did something that takes a lot of guts to do, as she opened her heart and mind to the world in order to show them her reality. In her paintings, you feel, see, hear, and truly know what love, life, pain, disappointment, and anger meant to her. Her art was a clear image of what she truly experienced in life. She depicted her emotions and what she went through and she shared it with the world.