I’ve always loves all the self portraits of Freda Kahlo. The colors and culture really inspired me. I wanted to do a Freda Inspired class for a few year now. I just knew I didn’t want to do self portraits though. So I did hands instead. Go to the store page and download the class. You know, support local Art teachers. :)

A quick personal reflection: I had a hard time finding pictures of her work for my younger students because her work is a bit graphic and does not make sense to them. I showed them the self portraits mostly. The older students said her work is disturbing and not at all what they expected because all they knew was the self-portraits, unibrow and flower crowns in her hair. I do think it is very important to teach our students about the artist and their life and not get on a trend train. Freda had a hard life and a very painful one at that. It’s not all floral halos, but pain, brokenness, and mental anguish. I see a lot of Freda inspired merchandise right now, T-shirts, and such. I wanted to purchase a T-shirt from Target to wear when I teach this class. However, the more I studied about her and watched documentaries and read biographies, I realized I do not want to identify myself with her life at all.

I want to add the materials i used below from my amazon affiliate page.