The Suffering of Frida Kahlo

I found the building of the Day of the Dead alter extremely interesting. Each person took many of the traditional elements of building an alter like candles, water, food but others added other personal details. Ellie had an American flag as the backdrop for her alters which was dedicated to those she lost in the military. Andrea chose to place her candles to represent each of the four corners of the world. This assignment affected me more than I thought possible and after I sought out photos of passed family and friends to keep around my apartment as memoirs, rather than dealing with death by no reminders around at all.

The paintings of Frida Kahlo are filled with recurring themes of death and suffering which overwhelmed her existence. Frida is in an accident in her late teens that leaves her with a severe spinal injury which affects her for the rest of her life and largely influenced how she painted. Frida was unable to have children and took the lost of a baby particularly hard, the painting below reflects the mental anguish that she experience. The Dia de Muertos art shares several characteristics with Frida’s art, including the use of skeletons, skulls to portray death, bright colors, and atmospheric settings.

Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo 1932

Each painting that Frida completed told a story and one being her volatile relationship riddled with infidelity, with her husband Diego Rivera.

Diego and I by Frida Kahlo 1949

Frida uses hard lines and vibernt colors in her paintings. Serveral of her paintings are often disturbing such as such as the painting below called “Without Hope.” It appears that her very existence is being pulled through her mouth and the title itself tells of the suffering that Frida endured in her last days while bedridden.

Day of the Dead Alter

My Day of Dead Alter celebrates my ancestors from Africa using the African mask, my late friend’s love of wine and the fruit is homage to the apple tree in my late grandfather’s yard.
My alter includes a mirror and a scarf with stars on it. The mirror is there because each time I look at myself, I see my ancestors staring back at me. The scarf represents the beautiful night sky that my friend’s ashes were scattered into from a plane.

My alter uses several of the traditional Day of the Dead Alter elements; I have lit candles, wine for drinking and apples for eating. The plants give a lush garden feel and the palm tree is representative of the palm trees on the Ivory Coast of Africa.

I do not own one white sheet, because all of my sheets are colorful but I do recognize that traditional alter would have a white backdrop.

The making of this alter has been an interesting experience as I searched in boxes for memoirs of deceased friends and family, I realized that I do not have any memorabilia of family and friends. I have moved more than 15 times, since I left my parents house. I once lived overseas and in several states along the east coast, I feel that moving has caused me to lose some sentimental photos and other items. I believe that those from Mexico have a much closer connection with those that who have died and keep anything for creating the Day of the Dead Alter. I am now on a mission to get copies of any photos that I may have lost and keep something to help me remember those that I have lost. People use a variety of methods to cope with losing someone that they love; I find it very hard to keep anything around that reminds me of someone I’ve lost. I do believe that this sentiment has widely affects many in the American culture because we do not celebrate the dead, but morn the dead.