{"id":2064,"date":"2011-01-11T00:01:57","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T06:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2011-01-11T00:01:59","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T06:01:59","slug":"me-frida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2064","title":{"rendered":"Me, Frida<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“For once, Frida felt larger than life. <\/em>Me, Frida! She felt like she could fly.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

I’m sorry, I know I engage in hyperbole for fun quite a bit here at 7-Imp, but I truly<\/em> find those colors breathtaking. <\/p>\n

On the 7-Imp to-do list in my head for this week, though I admit I usually figure these things out at the last minute, was a post in which I had planned to feature some illustrations from Amy Novesky’s<\/a><\/strong> Me, Frida<\/em><\/a><\/strong> (Abrams, October 2010), illustrated by David D\u00edaz<\/a><\/strong>. I’ve had the book for a while, and it’s a well-crafted story and beautifully illustrated. Then, yesterday it was up and named a Pura Belpr\u00e9 Illustrator Honor Book<\/a><\/strong>. So, I don’t know about you, but I think today’s the perfect time to feature it. I’m still feeling celebratory over yesterday’s winners!<\/p>\n

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Focused on Frida’s move in 1930 from Mexico to San Francisco with her husband, artist Diego Rivera, the book centers on Frida’s sense of loss and isolation upon arriving in America. Having flown there, as if literally both birds, Diego thrives upon their arrival, and “Frida felt lost. She was in a foreign city. She didn’t speak much English. And she didn’t have many friends.” (Speaking of birds, look for the small pink one in nearly every spread.)<\/p>\n

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“…Outside, the world was cool and gray. Frida felt very far away from home. Diego was working on a mural for the city. While he sketched, Frida was restless. She strummed a guitar. She sang Mexican folk songs called <\/em>corridos. ‘Quiet, <\/em>querida,’ cooed Diego. He loved his beloved’s singing, but there was work to be done.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

“…Mr. and Mrs. Diego Rivera attended parties,” Novesky writes. “The city’s elite celebrated Diego. Frida stood quietly at his side. No one even looked at her.”<\/p>\n

However, Novesky—with compelling pacing—reveals Frida’s increasing levels of self-confidence as an artist in her own right. She begins to explore the city on her own, feeling braver and more comfortable in her new surroundings: <\/p>\n

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“Soon Frida felt bolder and rode on a streetcar. She took a ferry across the Golden Gate and walked in the green headlands high above the ocean. From there, she could see the entire glittering city and all it held, including Diego. It was small enough to fit on the wing of a bird. For once, Frida felt larger than life. <\/em>Me, Frida!
She felt like she could fly.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

She then begins to paint, only to be called “passable” by the local press. One evening at a social gathering with Diego, she grows “tired of being quiet” and begins to sing, drawing the attention and admiration of not only Diego, but also everyone in the room. That evening, she “painted something great: a colorful wedding portrait of herself and Diego. She painted Diego big, and she painted herself small, just as the world saw them.” (And that would be the painting I’ll include at the bottom of this post.)<\/p>\n

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“Frida’s painting, <\/em>Frieda and Diego Rivera, was featured in the Sixth Annual Exhibition of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists. It was her first show. Adorned in her best dress and necklaces of ancient jade, her jet-black hair braided, Frida walked proudly through the crowd. When people saw her,
they stopped and stared at her in wonder.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

D\u00edaz rendered the paintings in these illustrations in acrylic, charcoal, and varnish on primed linen. “Vibrant spreads,” wrote Publishers Weekly<\/em>, “feature backdrops of warm colors dripping into cooler ones (and vice versa), just as the brightly dressed, bejeweled Kahlo melded with the damp, gray city. Diaz’s…overlapping complementary colors add a gorgeous yet slightly unsettling visual element, his intense hues and folk\/na\u00efve style recalling Kahlo’s work.” <\/p>\n

I second that “gorgeous.”<\/p>\n

Congratulations to both Novesky and D\u00edaz on the Honor award. <\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

ME, FRIDA. Copyright \u00a9 2010 Amy Novesky. Illustrations opyright \u00a9 2010 David D\u00edaz. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Abrams Books, New York, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n


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Frieda and Diego Rivera<\/em>, 1931, Frida Kahlo.<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“For once, Frida felt larger than life. Me, Frida! She felt like she could fly.” I’m sorry, I know I engage in hyperbole for fun quite a bit here at 7-Imp, but I truly find those colors breathtaking. On the 7-Imp to-do list in my head for this week, though I admit I usually figure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}