9 - Emily Lau - Self Portrait with Thom Necklace and Hummingbird

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter, famous for her vibrant style that integrated indigenous Mexican culture with European influences. She is also noted for her marriage to artist Diego Rivera. When Kahlo was a teenager, she was riding a bus when it collided with a trolley car. She suffered serious injuries and was bedridden for months. While she later regained mobility, she would suffer relapses of extreme pain for the rest of her life. During her recovery, she began painting for the first time. Because of her immobility, she began painting self portraits. In the end, out of her 143 paintings, 55 are self portraits. She used her self portraits as a way to represent her physical and psychological wounds. She is quoted to have said, "I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality." The above painting, Self Portrait with Thom Necklace and Hummingird, is only one of Kahlo's numerous self portraits.