When life hands you lemons

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality."

Frida Kahlo

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On September 17, 1925, everything changed for Frida Kahlo. Hardly 18, she was on her way home from medical school when her bus smashed violently into a trolley.

The damage was severe: a fractured spine, shattered pelvis and countless other injuries. But the accident that could have ended her life set a new one in motion.

Frida Kahlo painting in bed (1954).
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During her recovery, Kahlo took up painting. She devised a clever solution to work around her wounds: her mother hung a mirror above the bed so Kahlo could paint herself while lying down.

Years later and miles away from her native Mexico, Kahlo showed her work in New York for the first time. Her self-portraits were an immediate success.

When asked why she frequently painted her own image, Kahlo responded honestly: "I paint myself because I am so often alone, because I am the subject I know best."

Frida Kahlo in her bedroom (1951).

After New York, Kahlo completed La Columna Rota (The Broken Column), a self-portrait that explicitly depicted her suffering.

In it, she stands alone in a desert landscape. Her body is imprisoned, bound up in a medical corset and nailed down. Split open from head to hips, the artist reveals her insides. Kahlo uses a broken Greek column to represent her damaged spine, which had been impaled by a metal rod in her accident.

Ultimately, Kahlo’s maladies were the source of suffering but also of incredible inspiration. As she would say, "To create your own paradise, you have to draw from your personal hell. "