August Newsletter

ROOTS OF RESILIENCE - FRIDA’S DIALOGUE WITH NATURE

By Tanurima

Frida Kahlo was an iconic Mexican artist whose oeuvre consists of pieces that speak of her personal story, of the human condition, of identity, gender, politics, love and home. A salient feature of her work is how it speaks of her pain and how it shows the way she used art to process her lifelong tragedies—an almost fatal accident that left her disabled, her tumultuous relationship with her husband Diego Rivera and her multiple miscarriages that deeply wounded her. A recurring motif that we find in her art is nature, particularly the flora and fauna that symbolised her home and tied to her identity as a Mexican artist.

An exhibition called Frida Kahlo's Garden invited visitors to her garden at Caza Azul (or Blue House), her lifelong home in Coyocán, Mexico City. The garden was a special place for her. It is filled with native plants which she herself tended to, spent hours with, which acted as a source of solace and inspiration for her. She often wore flower crowns made with Bougainvileas, dahlias, fuchsias, and lantanas. In photographs she is seen spending time among her pet monkeys, deer, an eagle, parrots, turkeys, and dogs. The garden trails were made in such a way that she could move through it on a wheelchair.

How Frida’s voice inspires Pouls.of.art

Frida Kahlo has been a huge inspiration for Poulomi Bose, the founder and director of Pouls.of.art. She has paid homage to the artist through various interpretations of Frida and her portrait and also masterclasses which provide further knowledge about the inspirations behind Frida’s work.

Nature as a prominent motif in her work

In Frida’s portraits we find her sometimes being fused with natural elements like in Roots(1943) where her torso has a vine coming out of it. It shows Frida’s blood circulating the vine and reaching beyond the leaves’ veins, feeding the earth. To me it looks like a symbiotic relationship —her nourishing her land and her land nourishing her back. In her portraits The Wounded Deer (1946) she depicts a young deer, wounded by arrows and bleeding with its head as she herself. She used her pet “Granzio” and the model which is traced from her diary entries. It's emblematic of the toll that her chronic pain takes on her and how vulnerable she feels.

In the self portrait on the borderline between Mexico and the United States (1932) she contrasts the lush Mexican landscape with the mechanical smoke filled skyline of the US. She juxtaposes the idealised fertile soil of Mexico teeming with roots, flowers while the US side is full of grey factories and pollution, signalling a contrast between her beloved Mexico and the urban landscape of the US.

In What the water gave me (1938) she shows the subject in a p.o.v frame, precisely her legs and feet lying in a bath of grey water and in the water floats scenes from her life and things that are emblematic of the physical and pay suffering she was going through at the time. It's like this intimate tranquil moment of her in her bath water and how she trusts the water to allow her to unravel and to hold her pain which is a constant companion. The painting Self portrait with Thorn necklace and Hummingbird (1940) was painted after her divorce from Diego Rivera and the end of her affair with Nickolas Murray, which depicts her heartbroken state where the thorn necklace holds her in a chokehold.

The Restorative Power of Nature

Her use of images of plants, animals, fruits and flowers in her creations was a very intentional choice. She knew the cultural meaning of each element and used it deliberately in her art to portray a meaning deeper than what it might seem at first glance and to help portray her pain in a way that makes it universal. Sometimes they speak of her inner turmoil and reflect her inner anguish. At times they are emblematic of her identity and her home. She turns to nature to give her an identity other than the constant reminder of powerlessness over her own body, over the people in her life that she loved and her hopes and dreams that seemed to be taken away from her. She turned to nature to soothe her, to transform her pain and the recurring motifs of fruits, flowers and foliage served as a language to convey her anguish in a way that makes people see her and resonate with her.

Nature heals us. It rejuvenates us. Like a walk in the woods, a stroll along the riverside, time spent with animals. You can tell your prayers to the wind and your precious stories to the trees. You can vent your sorrow to water and be held. Yet it is nature itself that we are at war with today. Our relationship with nature and its elements is marked by both dependence and disregard. This fractured bond reveals a deeper disconnection—we have come to see ourselves as separate from the natural world. Frida often merges her body with plants, animals and landscapes in her work, reminding us of the inseparability of human life and their environment. And how protecting nature protects our wholeness.

Tanurima is the Assistant Editor at Pouls of Art. In her role, she handles research, ideation, writing, and editing for a variety of formats, including newsletters, podcasts, and masterclasses. She also contributes to the brand's creative voice through copywriting for merchandise and other communication channels.

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