I’ve always been inspired by the artist Frida Kahlo, how she painted directly how she felt on to the canvas without regard for depicting reality just the reality of how she felt. I used to shy away from creating any artwork that was too personal or about myself, feeling as if it would be uninteresting and somehow felt self centred. Frida known for her many self portraits and artworks that almost document the timeline of her life. Simply said that “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.” this changed my perspective and I started to feel any subject I tried to explore in my artwork that wasn’t personal to me felt unbalanced in a way as my own opinion was the only one being heard in the artwork. It was just another opinion on a subject I had no real connection to. Whereas when I created something really personal, the process was therapeutic, the end result was honest, not offering an answer and hopefully connecting to the viewer on a base human level.

The second image above is the painting titled “The Two Frida’s”. She often explored her feeling like she was straddling between two identities. The Mexican side of her mother and the European side of her father. I found this very inspiring and relatable in my project as I was exploring a lot of similar themes about being two halves of separate things. And I cant think of another artist that explores this so directly and consistently.

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