Wings To Fly — Frida Kahlo's Story

I did not know who Frida Kahlo was until I had written a fiction inspired by her portrait painting that I found on the free image site, Pexels. It was after my story was posted that I knew who the subject of the portrait was, so I researched to know her story.

^{A mural of Frida Kahlo via Unsplash}

Frida Kahlo's story is a touching one; a story of pain, perseverance, passion, love and heartbreak. So when I read this popular quote of hers, the puzzle pieces fell into place. I understood better.

Frida Kahlo knew pain right from when she was born into a poor home. As a child, she suffered from polio as one leg was shorter than the other. Growing up, she was involved in a bus accident that resulted in many injuries including a badly damaged spine. She was hospitalised for three months and underwent many surgeries.

While she was in the hospital, she started to draw and paint. Despite her pain, she knew she had found her passion —painting. She painted mostly portraits.

Later on, her bad leg made life so uncomfortable for her that it had to be amputated. She was in a wheelchair until her death at the age of 47.

One outstanding thing about Frida Kahlo was that she did not let her pain or her disability stop her from discovering her passion and pursuing it. She loved to paint. It must have been like a sort of escape for her; escape from her troubles, heartbreak and pain. It became a form of expression.

I mused that if I was in her shoes, would I have continued painting? I bet some people would have given up on life and wondered what was the point. Frida did not. She looked beyond her circumstances to see the bigger picture. As a result, her work lives on after she's gone. Her work has inspired many works of art and in this case, my fiction included never mind that it's posted on the Hive blockchain.

Every work of art is not transient as some people may think unless it's destroyed. Works of art like painting, sketches, poetry, writing, visual arts like sculpture etc live on forever.

This is the reason I love and respect vintages, museums, libraries, and arts because they are part of history. They tell stories that otherwise would have been forgotten like they never happened. That's worse than death.

I admire Frida Kahlo for pursuing her passion despite her circumstances. She did not need her bad leg to paint or to find the delights of living. If she had held onto her bad feet, it would have caused her more pain that would incapacitate her totally. Instead, she amputated it and 'flew' through her paintings.

Her passion was the wings with which she flew.

I learned that rather than allow some things to hold us back, let's 'cut' them off (no matter how painful) so we can truly fly.

Your passion is your wings to fly.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

^{Also posted here}