Homage to Frida Kahlo's Portrait with Thorn Necklace

About the Hoop

This 10” hoop is a homage to Frida’s 1940 Self-Portrait, which I think of as “Frida with Thorn Necklace.” I’ve always considered this painting to be very beautiful depiction of Frida, but its tranquil grace is juxtaposed by the brutal cuts to her wounded neck. To depict the decadent flower crown that Frida wears in this painting, I used a vintage millinery flowers, which are made from a very soft, high-linen-content paper, and accented those with jeweled pink stamens. I included a silver metal hand charm to represent the hand earrings given to Frida by Picasso and worn in several of her self-portraits. I tried to carefully capture the delicate scratches and bloody wounds on Frida’s neck and used a braided/twisted stitch to create the stem of the thorn necklace. The background is heavily sequined, with artificial pussy willows and more jeweled stamens mixed into the foliage. Frida's serape is made from draped upcycled fabric.

Scroll down for more images. Available for purchase at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift shop. 

About the Painting

Frida painted this self-portrait during her year-long separation from Diego and inscribed it to her long-time physician, Dr. Eloesser: “my doctor and my best friend. With all love.” The portrait utilizes opalescent colors to softly compliment its ornate realism, lulling the viewer aesthetically before they notice with profound shock that it is not jewels, but bloody thorns, that encircle her neck. Frida mixed in Catholic symbolism to express her personal martyrdom and suffering. Hayden Herrera described the effect of Frida’s style in very accurate terms, I believe: “Frida made herself into an icon for herself and others to worship. Like the holy image in a votive painting, she is at once an abstract symbol and a powerful physical presence. Her self-portraits were, like ex-votos or magic talismans, crucial for her survival. The feeling of magical efficacy gives Frida Kahlo’s paintings the peculiar magnetism that pulls the viewer into her cult” (Herrera, Frida Kahlo: The Paintings, p. 144).

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