Frida's Dream Come True: Baby Dieguito

Frida's Dream Come True: Baby Dieguito is a 48 inches by 36 inches acrylic on canvas art piece.

Artist: Avrel Menkes

As I painted a "Mona Lisa" smile on Frida, I wondered if my interpretation was the first, and perhaps only, positive narrative painting of Frida! What would have happened had she not miscarried? Would she have painted her life differently? I used the fantasy of this premise to develop a contrasting theme to the symbolism she used in her many paintings that expressed disappointment and devastation of not being able to give birth.

 Contrary to Frida's dry, barren landscapes, my painting sets Frida in a lush, fertile land, symbolizing hope and opportunity to produce children. Her hopes and dreams realized, the baby she yearned for, and referred to as "Little Dieguito", is born from Anthurium Labia Vulva, commonly known as the Vagina Flower. The writing in the sky is an actual excerpt from a letter she wrote to her doctor in May 1932, before she miscarried 6 weeks later. My depiction of her child represents what I image her baby would have looked like- a combination of Frida and Diego. The connection of hearts, while a statement of anguish and death in "The Two Fridas",is quite the opposite in my painting-symbolic of love and connection between a mother and child.

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