Ladybug’s Reviews > Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo > Status Update

Painting for Frida was, after all, a form of psychological surgery; she cut and probed into her very spirit. When her brush dipped into the palette of her heart, it came out red.

the relationship b/w human emotions & line, form,&color. The 12 pairs of drawings that resulted reveal Frida&Diego's spontaneous pictorial responses to the idea of pain, love, joy, hate, laughter, jealousy, anger, fear, anguish, panic, worry, &peace. Composed of numerous lines, Frida's drawings show her fascination w/intricate webs&root-like forms. Diego's capture his reactions to the emotions in broad, swift strokes

The primary influence is clearly that of Italian Renaissance painting. There r traces of the linear elegance of the English Pre-Raphaelites, & of the sensuous elongated figures of Modigliani. Highly stylized motifs like spindly trees & scalloped clouds suggest medieval manuscript illumination or Art Nouveau illustrations; the spiral pattern that transforms the sea in the 1st Self-Portrait recalls Japanese woodcuts