Frida Kahlo Book
Frida Kahlo
Chapter 1
Leaning close to the cold window pane in her bedroom, Frida took a deep breath and exhaled forcefully, forming a frosty circle in the middle of the window darkened by night. Her full black eyebrows met one another as she concentrated on drawing a door that filled the circle. Confined to her bed for months by polio, the only part of Frida that still leapt and played was her inventive mind. She wished she could leave her boredom and step through the door into a fantastic world.
Staring at the translucent entrance, Frida imagined herself walking through it and crossing a large field that led to a dairy called Pinzon; through the O in the sign she slid easily into the center of the earth.
There Frida found a little girl her same age, six years old, dancing as if she weighed nothing at all. While she danced, Frida told her new friend all her secret problems. Many years later, when Frida Kahlo was a famous artist, she remembered the imaginary little girl: “I do not remember her image or color. But I do know that she laughed a lot. How long had I been with her? I do not know. It could have been a second or thousands of years….I was happy.”
Frida cherished the memory of what she called her “magic friendship.” The imaginary child was her first creative act, and it foreshadowed her career as a portrait artist.
University of New Mexico Press
ISBN 0-8263-1642-5 1-800-249-7737