''A Ribbon Around a Bomb..."

So describes Frida Kahlo... the passionate and pained Mexican painter whose works of art bring to light the tragedy and beauty of her life.

I stumbled across the above image online recently. I believe it is an advertisement for a wedding dress but I was immediately inspired by the color, the bold style, the sensuality of rosebuds tucked into her hair.

I have spent the past few weeks revisiting her work and her fascinating life. (I highly reccomment the movie Frida in which Salma Hayek expertly portrays the artist.) She was a woman struck by the gamut of blows and benevolence that life deals out... Frida fought polio at the age of six, was in a bus accident as a teenager that made her incapable of having children, fell in lifelong love with notorious philanderer muralist Diego River, smoked too much, drank too much, told bawdy joked, carried on affairs with men and women... and by all accounts lived life on her own accord.

Her art largely depicts this double edged sword of pleasure and pain as she saw it within herself.

While her art is often self portraits, she has a way of capturing not only the female, but the human experience. The bounty and beauty that exists in this life, yet the solitude and pain we often can feel trapped within.

These images have been delighting my eyes and pulling at my senses and some deep-rooted emotions.

May they continue to inspire and provoke.

"I love you more than my own skin" ~ Frida Kahlo