Altered Book Blitz - Frida Kahlo Calendar

 On the weekend i worked on some long overdue projects that piled up before christmas. Here are the pages i did in the Frida Kahlo themed calendar. CLick here to see what i did last summer in the same book.  This spread started with a colourful painting of Frida with two birds.  I added the circles wrapping paper all around and added some rooster stickers and two yellow chicks on her head.  FRIDA and DECEMBER are added in more color with letter stickers.

This spread had Frida as a wounded deer on the right.  I added some pages from an Anthropologie catalog featuring slanted birch trees.  I thought the girl looked somewhat "southwestern".  I just added a quiver and some feathers to her outfit to create the huntress look.

 Ok - i'm sorry but i really don't get some of Ms. Kahlo's art.  This one is called Broken Column.  So i looked for columns in my clippings and found a 4 poster bed and some ruins.  The stained glass window has a sort of "broken" effect - so added that to the page.  The blue green stained glass echoes the blue sky and green fields, and makes up in colour what the religious figure lacks, in this black and white photo.

 So, to really disrepect her individuality, i thought i would like to see what she would like with normal eyebrows.  I painted over them in gesso and tried to to paint on skin colour to match her face.  That didn't work.  So i decided to just pretend we captured Frida, mid-wax job. I love the grey and cream colour story here.  And i think she looks great!

To finish off the last page of the December calendar, the last book in this 2010 round robin swap, i thought i would compliment this lovely painting with a simple christmas tree shape with faux postage stamps in the same red, gold and black colour theme.  A dab of stickles glitter adds some nice texture to the collar and cuffs.  And it is a few weeks late, but Merry Christmas everyone!

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!