Learn About the Artist

Gather facts about Frida Kahlo to present to your children. One good place to start is here for easily digestible information about the artist's life.

Kahlo-Inspired Self-Portrait

Kahlo painted many self-portraits including one of her most well-known, The Frame. For this project you will need a printer, colored pencils, a picture frame and markers that can write on ceramic and glass. To start, print out a black and white portrait of yourself either from sketch mode or just a regular version of a photo. Color your photo using the colored pencils. Next, slide a color copy of Kahlo’s The Frame into the 8x10 picture frame. Following Kahlo’s painting as your guide, use the markers to color the shapes of the frame, but not the portrait itself - that’s where your photo is going to go. Finally trim your portrait to fit inside the frame. Remove the Kahlo painting and replace it with yours.

Questions to Discuss While You Work

• Kahlo had a lot of sad things happened to her in her life (illness as a child and a very bad accident that left her badly injured) but she also had a lot of joy, both of which she channelled into her art. Do her paintings make you feel happy or sad (or another emotion) when you look at them?

• Kahlo painted a lot of self-portraits. Why do you think artists choose to paint themselves? When you were creating your self-portrait, what did you think about?