.SOMETIMES RAW.

(Self-portrait with Thorn necklace and hummingbirds, 1940)

Hello and Happy Thursday!

“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.” – Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo (de Rivera), 1907-1954, was a Mexican painter best known for her self-portraits. Very important in her work are Mexican tradition and culture. Many times, her work has been described as surrealistic but she denied this. She believed that “her work reflects more of her reality than her dreams”. She was married to the Mexican artist Diego Rivera and many stated that this relationship was very volatile. Kahlo suffered lifelong health problems and most were caused by a tragic bus accident that she survived when she was eighteen years old. The doctors thought she would not survive this accident but she did recover – however, mostly isolated because of her injuries. She painted many self-portraits throughout this time. 

“I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”

Kahlo painted in a wheelchair, in bed laying down and even throughout times of almost complete physical immobilization. Painting was her life. And Diego Rivera. Even though the couple simultaneously cheated on each other, they ended up back together. They even divorced and remarried. Kahlo had another huge problem. She did get pregnant initially but then had miscarriages. Three times. The third one almost destroyed her mentally. She wanted a baby so badly and did not feel as a “complete woman” if she would not be able to raise her own child. Her suffering and pain is depicted and can be felt in many painting, an example, click here. 

Her suffering continued; her paintings changed. Initially she painted herself and nature – she wants to become one with nature it seems. Then the paintings started to get darker and more painful. Her health deteriorated. In 1952, Frida’s lower right leg was amputated and she became frail. She was very ill throughout her last two years and had reoccurring anxiety attacks. Diego Rivera was by her side and helped whenever he could. The morphine she took towards the end made her often delusional. Of course her paintings changed again. Frida Kahlo died on July 13th, 1954. She was just 47 years old. A couple of days before she passed away she wrote in her journal: “I hope the exit is joyful — and I hope never to return — Frida”

The two Fridas, 1939

Self portrait with monkey, 1938

See more of her artwork here. 

Current Exhibitions of Frida Kahlo’s Paintings: 

Frida Kahlo Collection at the MOMA, New York: Ongoing

Kunstmuseum Gehrke-Rehmund, Baden-Baden: Exhibition until 3 April 2016 

Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico (Still on my bucket-list!)

Watch this great documentary on Frida Kahlo here.  I love art books and usually every time I visit the MOMA, I purchase one book before leaving. The Diary of Frida Kahlo is one of my favorite art-books by far. It is Frida Kahlo’s amazing illustrated journal which depicts a plethora of her paintings and documents the last ten years of her life. I highly recommend this book. A gem for every art-lover. 

UPDATE:   There is an amazing movie called “Frida” on Netflix if you would love to see! 

Do you like Frida Kahlo and her art? Which is your favorite painting? What other artist(s) do you like? I would love to hear from you. 

Hello and Happy Monday. Glad that you are here. 

I read to my son every night. We have these little rituals at night and always curl up in bed while he waits for his bedtime story. I love that he is into books for now.

Have you heard of the Brothers Grimm? Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were German linguists and academics who wrote the most famous German children’s books and fairy tales. Stories like “Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Frog Prince”, “Hansel and Gretel”, “Sleeping Beauty” and many more. I found an old Brothers Grimm book on my son’s bookshelf the other day and started reading to him when I realized how dark all these stories actually are. When you are a child I believe you won’t realize that your parents just read to you that a little girl (Little Red Riding Hood) walked all by herself through the dark deep woods to find grandma’s house. Then she met a weird wolf who asks her were the grandma lives. She tells him and the wolf devours her, jumps in her bed and waits for the girl. The wolf then of course gets shot by a hunter who slits him open and puts many rocks into the wolf’s belly.  Then throws him into a well. The hunter rescues the girl, brings her back to the parents and everything is a-okay. The end. While all this sounds like a horror movie in a way this is supposed to make kids sleep. And my siblings and I slept, believe it or not. We were fine. We did not think about anything bad really or are traumatized. Or are we? Hah! 

While reading Grimm’s fairy tales you will find tons of magic. Like in Disney films and other fairy tales. However, with Grimms’, children who don’t behave might also burn to death in an oven next to a gingerbread house. And all this just because they ate pieces of the woman’s house instead of starving to death. Their parents abandoned them and sent them in the deep dark woods because they were all poor and had nothing to eat. Way to go, parents!  [wondering: a witch? or just a woman who wants to live far away from society, built herself her dream house in the middle of nowhere and now these kids come and try to eat it all up?] 

Some of these tales are just dark. Besides child abandonment (Hello, Hansel and Gretel) you will read about a woman who is kept in a tower for it seems thousand years because her hair has become so long that the prince who wants to rescue her climbs up into the tower on her hair. Say what? Yep, bizarre, I know. Rapunzel at its best. I think that these fairy tales all have one thing in common. They all do use an extraordinary language to mirror our fears and hopes of this world and to let us know that a few lucky ones are able to escape this gingerbread house, forest or tower that metaphorically means life. Of course Grimm’s tales are a bit on the darker side but as far as life lessons and moral they are right on. You teach your kids to not trust strangers (or wolfs in the park, damn you wolves!), that family is important and whatnot. And in the end we all live awesomely every after. 

However, do Fairy tales still teach us lessons today? Are Fairy tales just for kids? What are you reading to your kids?

Hello and Happy Friday!

This week was crazy. Running around, doctor appointments and such, schedules and more appointments and now I sit in the kitchen, write and breathe. Everything is okay. I had a great evening so far watching a movie at SEHES Haus (Paulette) which was so sweet and funny. On the other hand, my son had a pretty bad day today. You know when you wake up in the morning and have a bad start or are in a bad mood and it somehow sticks with you throughout the day? That kind of day. Nothing was okay and was good enough in his eyes. He cried a lot and screamed. Days like this just suck, but hey what can we do. Tomorrow will be better, right? This is what I have been up to during this week. Have a great weekend. Enjoy!

Reading: I finished Albert Camus’s The Sea Close by and I enjoyed it. I also re-read The Essential Ginsberg and I did purchase this book because of the section ‘letters’ (especially the ones to Neil Cassidy) and ‘journals’. Great book by one of my favorite authors. ‘What happened Miss Simone‘ is a book I can pick out from Blogging for Books to review. Sounds awesome. Have you heard about ‘Wreck and Order’ by Hannah Tennant? It has gotten some great reviews so far. 

Writing: I did not work too much on my book these days but I will change that. I did started many drafts for the blog however. I also wrote a lot in my little moleskin journal this week while waiting at doctor offices and whatnot. 

Watching: It seems that everybody in this world is watching the show ‘Love’, right? My husband and I also jumped on the bandwagon and finished the the first ten episodes this week. It was fun and entertaining I have to admit. Even though it took me a while to get into it I recommend it. 

We started ‘A Young Doctor’s Notebook‘ and it is funny and really well done. I guess we stick to this show for a while. I mean, Jon Hamm and David Radcliffe – hello? AMAZING! On my to-watch-list is the documentary about Nina Simone ‘What happened Miss Simone’. Check out the trailer here. Goosebump-material for sure. I have seen Malala Yousafzai at the United Nations and listened to her speeches several times. However, I never read her book.  I want to watch the documentary ‘He Named Me Malala’ for sure! I also watched ‘The Name of the Rose’ which blew me away. My husband could not believe that I have never seen it. Well, well, well…. 

Thinking about: Death lately. I was sad to hear that Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose) passed away on February 19th.  I read The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana a long time ago and remember that I loved it and always meant to read more by  him. As anybody who loves to read and reads a lot knows – too many good books, not enough time. Harper Lee “To Kill a Mockingbird” also died on February 19th. 

“Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.”

I was sad to hear about the passing of Peter Lustig on February 23rd. He was a German television presenter and author and well known for his children-TV show ‘Löwenzahn’. I grew up watching his show every week; mostly on Sunday. This is an excerpt of his last recorded show. ‘Abschalten’, as he used to say. 

Discovering: I recently found out about LitLounge.TV which is a great website stuffed with exciting and interesting interviews and authors. I loved to listen to Wolf-Dieter Storl so far! He is amazing! The ‘Coburger Literaturtage’ are around the corner, too. I hope I am here in April to listen to and meet some great writers and attend some readings. I am especially excited that Martin Walser (his latest book “Ein sterbender Mann”) will read from this book in April! He is almost 90 years old!