Frida Kahlo Altered Book

Six months ago i started a calendar altered book round robin with 5 artistic friends.  Today i finished working in the 6th book - a vibrant colourful and chunky Friday Kahlo inspired journal.  I had the book for the month of June.  Tomorrow i'll mail it to Aileen and any day now i'll get my book back from Terrie!  This is the first time I've done a calender with 6 instead of 12 people - so it is unusual in the fact that we work on our own book twice - January and July.
The page above had the illustration on the right - a bride who is afraid to look at life open (direct translation!)  I decided to create a random collage focusing on yellow and pink, which featured prominently in the original painting.  The lady on the left was cut out of a Spanish womens magazine from the 50's.  I chose it because the dotted dress somewhat echoed the watermelon seeds.

This spread had a somewhat dour portrait on the left with geometric buildings in the background. I created the simple collage on the left using the colours found in the original artwork.  The citrine mulberry paper was in the kit of "goodies" that Aileen included with her book.  That's where i found the square stamped face that i added to the woman. I think it helps reinforce the rectangles of colour on the right.  And the bird - well - you know me and birds!

The next spread had the Frida Kahlo self portrait with monkeys. I used a page from the old Spanish magazine on the right that illustrated various necklines.  I added the words "monkey see monkey do" on the left to contrast the message on the right - to "express yourself individually"! Some vibrant parrots add a bit of splash. 

The next spread turned into a bit of a craft project.  I created a 3-D Frida Kahlo museum!

Here it is looking flat.

I created the interior courtyard of the museum - which used to be Frida's house, on the outskirts of Mexico City. I pasted together several pictures of the pebble walls with their glorious blue alcoves.  In the center i created a pool - and FINALLY used these handpainted tile stickers i have been saving for some reason!

Don't look too closely at the courtyard - the perspective is somewhat off - but the overall effect is fun!

Here it is all folded open.

Here is the cover of Aileen's book - she used dozens of assorted coloured and patterned ribbons to add fun to the binding.

This is the sign in page.  Aileen created tags for each of us - that's mine decorated with some elements from the goody bag she included with the calendar.  You can see her signature colourful style.  Check out more at Outside the Margins!