“I Keep on Drawing out Self-Portrait, for I Love Myself”

Frida Kahlo

By Hayden Herrera

Translated by Kim Jung-A

555 pages, 13.5$

Min-um Publishing Company

Drawing out a lovely self-portrait to persuade one’s ex-boyfriend who dumped her in order to make him so enchanted with the picture as a method to get him back, Frida Kahlo drew her portraits with this earnest. The woman, with a soft brush made of marten hairs, painted a picture while in a hospital cell. The woman did not reach her fifties, but she finished 200 paintings, mostly self-portraits.

Gravity dominates the world of materials. It is the force of drawing everything into the core of Earth. With that power, the skyscraper, which covers up the surface of the Earth, can stand. Self-regard overwhelms the human mind. It is originated from instinct. A man who spends his lifetime in public service thinks of it as an altered expression for self-regard. Frida Kahlo plainly drew out this self-regard into her paintings.

People feel refreshed from this picture, though speaking of it as curious. Making clear of the horrible thoughts, which they once held secretly in mind, through this picture, people become free of it. The covert, pressured tragedies, dominating our unconsciousness, soar up into the sky, paying off its spite. The world is the same everywhere. Time flies, but the anxiety for one’s continually changing lover would never be solved perfectly. It does not matter whether it is Korea or Mexico. Everywhere is the same when it comes to affairs of love. A woman born 100 years ago, who can be empathize with our feelings, seems amazing. The frankness of Kahlo to herself would be the core reason because frankness leads to everyone’s feeling.

It does not depend on one’s culture and level of society. Frankness is everything. Having a heart-to-heart talk with oneself, she could see herself directly without any rudeness, drawing up all of these paintings. She cured herself by this, making up with herself. This jumps over time and space to enter our mind and ushers us to Frida Kahlo. This is the power of sympathy.

The woman had gone through infantile paralysis. Several traffic accidents had forced her to have 35 rigorous surgeries. But, those hardships could not beat her out of grandeur, splendor, and upright attitudes. The woman, who spitted out dirty words without hesitation, had not lost her happiness, brilliance, and jovial appearance. The woman did not disclose her tragedy, but she also did not agree with it. The woman had created mythological fantasy everywhere. We can reflect ourselves on this posture. We are seeing our ideals. We can read up what we really want to be from this.

Severe hardships, which can not be disregarded by anyone, set a firm grip on her. She had loved herself without giving in. Her desire for accomplishment never surrendered. If it comes to sorrow, magnificently with sadness, if it comes to pain, brilliantly with soreness, the woman created her own fantasy so dramatically. The woman stabbed with a poisonous needle onto the people who is likely to be servile, under the cloak of the reality. What can hold us up from grandeur? Look at the woman, who had worked herself up under these harsh, unfortunate tragedies!

Comments by Artist Kim Jum-sun