This book is an absolute delight in every sense of the word !
This is the diary of Frida Kahlo covering the years 1944 – 1954 published here IN IT’S ENTIRETY! A Famous artist and Icon her work and life are now legend. Her journal contains Frida’s thoughts, poems, dreams as well as paintings, sketches & drawings including several self-portraits.
The direct facsimile of her Journal is a total delight for the eyes of any creative soul and an immense source of inspiration. The book also offers both an introduction to the life and works of Frida Kahlo as well as a translation of Frida’s writings in the Journal from her native Spanish to English.
For me, this is a perfect example of how a Journal or Diary (whatever you want to call it) works to help us process all of our thoughts, ideas, dreams, aspirations and struggles. Of how we don’t need to ‘stick to writing on the lines’, how we’re all making it up as we go along, of how there is NO right or wrong, just what we need to do in order to work it out. Of how ia journal s not designed or intended to make sense to anyone else or indeed to be a thing of ‘beauty’. We can use words; however we want to use them, we can use colour, paint, drawings, images…whatever makes sense to us, ourselves. In her diary, Frida wasn’t attempting to make something to be admired by, or even approved of, by others. She was using it as a tool to capture her thoughts, to write down her ideas to try things out using both words and images. To process the very real pain she endured. This for me is the essence of any journal or diary, be it written, visual, creative, illustrated.
I’ve made a very short video SEE BELOW of a thumb through her diary, just to give you a flavour. I highly recommend that you find a way to take a look at the book.
We all need to find our own way, using our own voice…this is how Frida Kahlo found hers. The question to ask ourselves might be…How are we finding ours ?
Portrait of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954),