Homage to Frida Kahlo's "Tree of Hope"
About the Hoop
This 22" round embroidered hoop art was inspired by Frida's 1946 painting, Tree of Hope. Despite its tragic subject matter, this painting nearly glows with vibrant color and vivid imagery. I tried to incorporate a similarly rich layering of colors and tones into the embroidered piece. The hoop required a painstaking amount of embroidery as both the background landscape and the sky were completed using only two strands of thread at a time. I incorporated a 3-dimensional aspect to the fabric of Frida's skirt in order to replicate the illusion of her seated position. I created her corset from sewing together pieces of ribbon, choosing to make it white rather than pink, so that people might be more likely to recognize it for what it is. I used draped fabric for the sheets cocooning the wounded Frida. As a final touch, I incorporated an actual gold chain and gold beads to create Frida's earrings and her Tehuana coin lariat (which I was able to view in person at the Brooklyn Museum exhibit). I had to improvise for the "coin" pendant, so I substituted a religious medal.
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About the Painting
According to biographer Hayden Herrera, Kahlo created this painting after a major spinal fusion that was performed in New York. Upon her return to Mexico, Frida was confined to a steel corset for eight months. Unfortunately, the operation did not improve her health, and instead she lost weight and became anemic. She also suffered shooting nerve pains. This operation was the beginning of a steady downturn in Frida's health.
"Beneath a cloudy sky in which the sun and moon divide the painting into light and dark sits a weeping Frida clothed in a red Tehuana costume. She keeps vigil over the body of a second Frida, who lies anesthetized on a hospital trolley, her surgical incisions still open and dripping with blood. The seated Frida holds a pink orthopedic corset as if it were a trophy. But her real support comes from a flag emblazoned in red with words taken from a song--her motto, 'Tree of Hope, keep firm.' The flagpole's pointed red tip looks like a paintbrush dipped in red paint, or in this context, like a surgical instrument stained with blood. The two Fridas are flanked by a gravelike trench and a precipice; as always the fissured earth is a metaphor for Frida's wounds. ... Joining the tragic victim and Frida the heroic survivor in one image, Tree of Hope is an act of faith, like a retablo. But in Frida's retablo, there is no miracle worker; Frida takes charge of her salvation and becomes her own holy intercessor" (Herrera, Frida Kahlo: The Paintings, pp. 191, 193).
