Artist Swap: Inspired by Frida Kahlo

Artist swap pieces are gradually arriving in the mail and I’m ecstatic to hear that Emily’s participates and mine are loving what they received. I will be posting pictures of the artist inspired swap pieces and the artist who inspired the swap piece. My swap partner who happened to be Emily received her package yesterday. Emily’s favorite artists are Frida Kahlo, Oliver Jeffers, Vincent van Gogh, and Margaret Kilgallen; I choose Frida Kahlo as the artist to inspire me for the swap piece. Though, I’m familiar with Frida’s work, okay she’s one of my favorite artist too, I did learn more about her. Like she wrote poetry too.

Frida’s Kahlo’s painting, “The Little Deer” and her poem, “The Wounded Deer” inspired the shadow box gift I made for Emily. Frida’s poem talks about her nine antlers battling nine arrows, so I painted nine toothpicks to look like paintbrushes that have become arrows. The branches are from my backyard. The arrows cause the branches to bleed. They represent the pain that Frida paints in her paintings. I added color to the photograph of Frida and her deer in Photoshop. I used a container with a lid as a shadow box and I cut a window on the lid so when closed Frida and her deer are seen through it. On the back of the shadow box I wrote an excerpt from Frida’s “The Wounded Deer” poem. I love the way the inspired Frida shadow box turned out, especially since I used a container as a shadow box. I might even make one for myself.

I also embroidered some cards inspired by Frida’s embroidered clothing and her “Viva La Vida” painting. I made a Mexican flower made out of tissue paper, of course inspired by the flowers Frida wore in her hair and used it as a bow for Emily’s package. I doodled a picture of Frida on Emily’s package label. Helen Dardik, a Canadian illustrator, inspired the style of the doodle. Helen Dardik is one of my new favorite artists and sells her colorful children illustration on Etsy.

The rest of the week I’ll be posting more inspired artist swap pieces.