Born in 1907, July 6th in Coyoacan, Mexico, at the home of her grandmother, Frida Kahlo called herself a 'daughter' of the Mexican Revolution.

A Chance Encounter
As a school girl, Frida encountered an artist who would change her life forever. She and a school friend snuck into an auditorium being painted at the time by the already world renowned painter, Diego Rivera. He was painting The Creation. Charmed right away by his off manner, passion, and attentions toward Frida, she fell in love with both Rivera and painting.

Frida had been injured as a young girl in a bus accident and had survived the often deadly polio. Because of these hardships, she spent much of her girlhood alone or on her backside, stuck in bed, healing. She also used the time to draw, paint, and write poetry. She showed her paintings to Diego Rivera, the artist she had met at the school. He was more than intrigued with her. One year later, in August of 1929, Frida became Diego Rivera's wife.

A Daughter of the Mexican Revolution
In 1928, Frida joined the communist movement organizing in Mexico - PCM. Rivera was also a member and painted murals for the Mexican Revolution including the wall at the school. By 1929, however, the PCM told Rivera he was no longer welcome. Although it was something to which Frida had been passionate, she resigned from the Mexican Communist Party. Another year later, Frida traveled with her husband to San Francisco where he'd been commissioned to paint the famous Stock Exchange mural. A dutiful wife, she later went to New York City with him for a show of his work at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Frida Kahlo was not satisfied as a second wheel in the art world. As her painting progressed, she desired commissions and shows of her own. By 1937, Frida had separated from Rivera, and was living, once again, in Mexico. She exhibited a small group of her own paintings. She also opened her home to the exhiled Soviet Leon Trotsky and his wife. During this arrangement, she had an affair with Trotsky. Her next move was to hold an entire show of her own in New York City sponsored by Julian Levy. The gallery show was successful and Frida sold some of her paintings to the American actor named Ed Robinson. Attention from Paris was also aroused and The Louvre bought her painting, The Frame, in 1939.

By this time, Frida had endured many surgeries and suffered ailments due to her injuries as a child and her bout with polio. She also suffered two miscarriages during her marriage to Diego Rivera up until their separation. These most likely led to the creation of one of her most influential paintings, The Two Fridas. Upon completion of The Two Fridas, Kahlo was accepted into the International Surrealist Exhibit held in Mexico in 1940. By 1941, Frida exhibited again in America at the Boston Museum of Modern Art. That same year, she remarried Diego Rivera.

Frida Kahlo lived seventeen more years after her reconciliation with her husband. During these years, she lived in Mexico in the house of her childhood, which she called The Blue House. She experienced extensive surgery including a series of seven spine surgeries which lead to having to wear a steel corset and having a metal bar attached to her spine. In 1953, she had her leg amputated up to the knee, as it had become gangrened and had to be removed.

Frida put up with so much pain during her life but did not allow it to take her over or limit her life. Those close to her were always aware of this and understood her constant determination and zest for life, her passion for the arts, and her belief in the beauty which the freedoms of the Revolution had to offer. By 1946, however, Frida had to be prescribed considerable amounts of morphine and by 1951 she was restricted to a wheel chair much of the day, given painkillers to keep the pain level to a minimum. Frida died three years later - 1954 - in The Blue House of her childhood in Coyoacan. Rivera died three years later. In 1957, The Blue House opened as a museum dedicated to Frida's art called Museo Frida Kahlo.

Finding Inspiration In Personal Adversity
Although Frida's health declined after 1940, her spirit did not. She continued to rise among artists as a renowned painter, and she also continued her work as a revolutionary. Frida assisted in guiding revolutionaries to safe exile several times during her life; and, just before her death in `54, both Frida and Rivera rejoined the PMC. Frida exhibited in New York City`s `Exhibitioin of 31 Women` and held another one-woman show in Mexico. Frida also taught painting, both at her home in Coyoacan and at the Ministry of Public Education's School of Painting and Sculpture - the institution from which she received a prize for her painting titled, Moses.

A series of photographs of Frida Kahlo, her life, and her painting is the subject of an exhibit sponsored by ARC in Whittier California, summer of 2010. A total of 46 photographs will be on display.

Find out more about various artists, such as Marc Chagall, in an article also written by Kara Skye Smith.