Self-Portraits in the Style of Frida Kahlo

Kahlo's "Self Portrait with Monkey"

About her own work, Frida Kahlo said, “I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.” In one of her famous self-portraits, Kahlo has a cat perched on one shoulder and a monkey on the other, with insect-like flowers flying around her head. While this “reality” is not what others may have seen when looking at her, this is the world that she experienced and chose to represent in her painting. Like Kahlo, participants in this workshop will combine the realistic with the symbolic to make portraits that show their individual experience and identity. We will go over painting basics such as mixing color, facial proportions and creating a background and foreground, and will look at self-portrait examples by Kahlo and others for inspiration.

 Leader: Chelsea Woodard and Meghan Frame