Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Some Other Mexican Artists, and Me in February 2003
Anxiety was freezing me up. With Valentine’s Day approaching fast and me without a boyfriend, I was getting downright cranky. Oh sure, I could go out and get a new one or I could go back and just maybe the one who said he would adore me forever and he might give me balloons shaped like butterflies and hearts and maybe even a big champagne bottle. But it was my fake husband who stepped forward all on his own.
On the 13th we went into the city, down in the Pilsen area, to see the current Spanish Art exhibit at the Mexican Arts Center. It was Frida and Diego and other Mexican artists glimmering all around. The first room had deep egg-yolk yellow walls and work by artists I wasn’t familiar with. The next room featured black & white photographs in the darkness of black walls. Then the colors opened and broadened into a deep burnt orange. Here was Diego. Not his murals, smaller works of which I especially liked a self-portrait of him in his little derby done in pencil. Then, with my FH holding my hand, we entered the realm of Frida. Oh. The work was intense and very striking. I never realized how classical and intricate her work was. She is frozen in her self-portraits, ageless and always straight-on. The eyes, hers and those of the monkeys just glowed, in one of her famous monkey painting. You gotta love a woman who is bold enough to paint in, own, her unibrow and her little mustache! I loved “Diego On My Mind”, even the frame, gilt and curvy, was impressive and humorous. In another self-portrait I was swept away by the fine hair, each painted in a single stroke, on her brow… concentrated and passionately loving. Yet it was the “Mrs. Gelman” portrait that blew my mind. (The paintings shown here are from the Gelman collection.) It is a small piece, possibly 9” x 12” showing golden rolling curls embracing the face of Mrs. Gelman in her fur coat. Each brush stroke is intense and precise. The woman is radiant! It is in a small frame with blue and white Mexican tiles. The rest of the exhibit was mostly portraits, some quite ravishing, other offering a visceral viewpoint.
The entire collection will be going to Mexico when the show is over. If you visit Frida’s Blue House, you can see them.
From there we went to lunch and had some of the worst peasant Mexican food I ever tasted, so watery and bland and gristly, yuck!
I had an appointment to visit a curator at another gallery in the city, but when I arrived I was told that she was no longer affiliated with the gallery. We did view the current exhibit juried by Ed Pasque (sp) and it was just okay without any standout pieces.to me. The idea was “solutions” as in solutions to world problems. I did admire a piece written in Arabic on glass. It said something about scholarship being the answer instead of war. I was thinking about how my glitter painting of a wiggling woman would be perfect. I say something like…”Don’t be so serious…Dance!”
On the way home, which took FOREVER! I realized that Frida used a lot of Mexican imagery in her paintings and how I should too. I was thinking “northern” and came up with …apples, roses, deer, red foxes, Canadian geese, cherries, ice, cranberries, and everything autumn. I had planned to do a “BIG SNOW” series of paintings this winter, but there is no inspiration. It has been brittly, face-slapping, tartarian cold here in Chicago. No snow!
Friday I created a cyber valentine. It was a small performance piece dedicated to peace. I sent out love to everyone I know and hoped they would pass it on. I wanted to add a bit about wanting to kill the terrorists but my FH said that wouldn’t be appropriate in a love card. Ironically my FH and I cancelled our dinner plans due to s blizzard in the weather forecast. I went to sleep early and woke up to nothing. It never materialized. Yeah! my email was full of love sent back to me.
Saturday we did something everyone should do on V-day. We ate Indian! OMG! It was intensely erotic and sensual and exhausting. Sizzle India had a buffet and I had the opportunity to taste everything Indian. I figured it must be authentic because the restaurant was full of Indians; in fact we were the only nonIndians! Tandoori shrimp, chicken tikka, chicken biryani, keema samosa, chapiti, aloo parantha, gulab jamoon for desert and some cornmeal/almond cubes, oh and a tea to drink. Each dish was amazingly distinct, rich with spices; so aromatic it opened up my sinuses and made me swoon. I was eating perfume!
Many of the dishes had a green leaf. When I asked the waiter, he called it curry leaf, but I thought curry was a blend of spices and the only curry leaf I know about is an herb with short gray leaves similar to rosemary. I don’t believe it is edible.
Anyway we left Sizzle India intoxicated. I begged my man for kisses. I wanted to see what we tasted like now. Finally he said, “Girl, settle down.”
We had planned to go to the peace march in the city. I was feeling kind of warrish, so we didn’t go.
Here are some pics…
Chicago Images I
Chicago Images II
Chicago Images III
Aye! Barrington Aye! Aye!
