Frida Kahlo's Style

Like so many others, I adore the paintings of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. I still remember the first encounter with one of her works: it was in my Danish class (yes, actually..) and we were presented with various paintings to analyse like we did short stories and novels. 

It was this The broken Column from 1944 and it was so striking to me. I had never seen a self portrait like this before. All I knew was the beautifying and glamourising portraits or the royal portraits. But this!? Exposing one's vulnerability and pain in a serious painting was something which blew me away. It also had a closer resonance to me as I have always suffered from spinal pains and I could very well imagine how it must feel to have your spine shattering to pieces.

And now following the will of her husband Diego Rivera, her locked up closets have been opened and many of her items are curated into an exhibition in her house in Mexico. Alas, I am probably not able to see it before it closes later in the year but examples of her most significant and iconic attributes are featured through Vogue Mexico online; her dresses.

When ever we think Frida Kahlo, we automatically have her colourful dresses and head pieces in mind. I have for long wanted to draw a paper doll of her so these dresses will be my first go to material and then her paintings and photographs of her.

If you follow the link at the bottom you can see a higher resolution of her wonderful wardrobe.

{link}

{Inspired by} Mary Wollstonecraft

 

In tribute and in the celebration of the International Women's Day, I will take the time to express my admiration and respect to one of the first feminists: Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797). Her most influential work in this field is beyond a doubt A Vindication of the Rights of Woman from 1792. This should be on the reading list of everyone, not just women, and I particularly like her emphasis on the importance of equal education for men and women.

 

Sadly, many of her points in her work are still being fought over today. Women still experience objectification and undervalue. The same thing goes for the stereotypical areas connected to women, even if they are produced or evoked by men.

 

 

I do believe in equal value and worth, and whatever the individual should want to do, the individual should be regarded on the work, not gender (or race for that matter, because so many of her sentiments on gender can also be applied to race). And especially not looks and appearances! It is also about time that the traditional misunderstanding that beauty equals goodness is lost. We can never make a tabula rasa, but let's stop the nonsense about such clearly distinguished and divided sections of the world. No one should be forced to account for them wanting to have children, their desire to be the CEO, not wanting children, getting married or not, or any other personal and individual way to set up their lives and then be met with stereotypes of traditional and outdated gender roles. This is what I fight for and mark on this day, and continue to do any other day.

 

Mary Wollstonecraft was a remarkable woman and I really recommend reading up about her, even just at Wikipedia. She has influeced such a vast number of people with her writings and her life, despite also falling for some of the things she advocated against, and other people's contempt and prejudice. Nevertheless, she tried. And we all should at least try to educate ourselves and inspire the people around us.

 

And so, to inspire for today I give you some of her quotes from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with the hope and the faith that people will one day be respected and admired for their individuality and not their success in stereotypical conformity.

 

 

“It is time to effect a revolution in female manners - time to restore to them their lost dignity - and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners.” 

 

 “My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists - I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.” 

 

“Weakness may excite tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of man; but the lordly caresses of a protector will not gratify a noble mind that pants for, and deserves to be respected. Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship.” 

 

“But women are very differently situated with respect to eachother - for they are all rivals (...) Is it then surprising that when the sole ambition of woman centres in beauty, and interest gives vanity additional force, perpetual rivalships should ensue? They are all running the same race, and would rise above the virtue of morals, if they did not view each other with a suspicious and even envious eye.” 

 

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” 

 

“The beginning is always today.”

~~~~~~~~~~ 



Sylvia Plath 1932-1963

Today, it is 50 years ago the world lost what would prove to be one of its most significant poets and novelists.

There is such a sadness thinking about how well she wanted to do and her stuggle between literature and family life.

She holds a very special place in my heart, for better or worse, reminding me to believe in myself, trust myself, never to give up. Her diaries have been a source of knowing that I am not utterly alone in this world with these thoughts and aspirations.

I wish I could tell her how big an inspiration she has been to so many here, and how we admire her struggle, and weep for her downfall. It would probably just have been a small consolation, if any to her, that we devour everything from her hand - whether poems or drawings. Because she was also a talented artist in this field.

The drawings below are from a show featuring her unknown works. The details and simplicity of just a pair of shoes both enhance the struggle to free herself of expectations and yet to live up to them at the same time.

The draft of the poem 'The Sting' shows the first draft in along series of corrections - forever trying to get it right.

To me, Sylvia Plath is not just a golden lotus, she is a lioness, and hopefully she has found the rest and the piece she so longed for.



Even amidst fierce flames

the golden lotus can be planted

- Inscription on Sylvia Plath's tombstone

{Photo} {Drawings by Sylvia Plath} {manuscript draft}

Karen Blixen 1885-1962

 

On September 7th, it was 50 years since one of Denmark's and perhaps the world's greatest writers died. Both known by her pen name, Isak Dinesen as well as her real name, Karen Blixen, she established herself as almost a living legend everywhere she went. The allure of Africa, the sombre feelings of Scandinavia, and her luxury of the old world made her a mythical creature in her own time.

 

In Denmark she still casts a long shadow in the litterary landscape and writers are both fearful and naïve when they try to compare themselves to her. Most don't dare, and those who do are looked at as 'slow'.

 

If one was to compare or try to decide who has been the greatest writer in Denmark of all time, people will find it hard to choose between Hans Christian Andersen and Karen Blixen. Their writing styles are different but both bodies of work and both their lives can be seen as fairy tales - and by this I don't mean the Disney-fied world of fairy tales. But tales of both good and bad in excess. It is a common legend around Karen Blixen that she had made a pact with the Devil, and people who was around her a lot seems to have been almost absorbed by her presence. She was ruthless in many ways, perhaps due to early groundbreaking sorrows in her life, but nevertheless she spilled out the things she wanted to tell on paper for the rest of us to enjoy, fear, and learn from.

 

I am constantly surprised about how much new I gather when rerererererere-reading her works, and I have actually only read very little by her hand. Sorrow-Acre still stands as one of the most haunting short stories I have ever read. Not that it was scary, but that you keep thinking about it. The same goes for The Sailor-Boy's Tale.

 

To me, Karen Blixen and her work, embodies some of the underlying forces of Scandinavian thinking and culture, even though they can be quite dark and cold. Perhaps there is something about having such dark and long winters here which create a mark on our mind and souls. Who knows?

 

{Image}

{An English site with a general overview of her life, works, inspirations (this is VERY interesting to read), and other things about her}

*Marilyn Monroe*

Time and timelessness is a curious thing. On Sunday it is 50 years ago that Marilyn Monroe died. She has a long time ago entered the realm of myths and legends, so much that sometimes you kind of forget that she was a real breathing person. Even her sorrows and lows in her short life don't change that fact but even enhance her mythical status. I always find it slightly weird that my grandparents saw pictures of her in magazines and her pictures in the cinema when her movies was new and not-yet classics.

For a lifetime she has been gone, and most people just know the photos of the smiling blonde with the sexy walk at best. I have never thought that those studio-photos did her any justice. They were all too polished (my views are the same with today's over-retouched images) and never let her character shine through.

We will probably never know for sure whether her death was murder, accident, or suicide. However, I can't say that I don't understand her if it was the latter. No person can live up to a living legend-persona without problems at some point.

Last year (I think) a book with a collection of her diaries and notes was published, and fittingly called Fragments. The fragments until then had been the photos, films, biographies en masse, and other quite one-sided views about her. Now we had a small glimpse into her mind.

I guess we will always wonder what could have happened if a too-young artist had not died, the same goes for Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, James Dean, Boddy Holly, John Lennon etc. Would Marilyn have embraced her aging, become braver or more difficult, married, had children? 

Could it have been possible for Marilyn to be happy? 

From what we know, it seems like she was too fragile and that her life was a candle burning brighter than all the rest - and twice as fast.

Perhaps she knew in a way that her life would be rather short. The continiously growing collection of pictures of her is a rather startling contrast to her short career (I don't really think 14 years is that long). I keep seeing 'new' pictures of her. It is like they compensate for her non-physical appearance, like statues of godesses scattered around old empires.

I have always loved her Vogue-sitting from 1962 photographed by Bert Stern. Especially the images of her more contemplating looks. Her maturity and innocence is captured just perfectly here, and I find that a worthy way of remembering her. I hope that she agrees.

{Source}

   

{Inspired by Anaïs Nin}

Do you ever experience encounters with writers whom you immediate think could have been your best friend if you had lived in the same era? I do, and one of the writers I instantly knew I shared some kind of bond with was Anaïs Nin.

Especially her legendary diary has been a wonderful source of encouragement to me, and I really think more people should become familiar with her, and not just through her erotica. What I particularly like about Anaïs Nin is that she does not judge people - she observes, analyzes, and interprets, but never judges them. And that is something I think we should take to heart; integrity and respect for everyone's different opinions and values. This is just one of the reasons why I respect and look up to Anaïs Nin so much.

So a small, and so not adequate, homage to the talented and boundless muse and writer, I give you some images of the things which I associate with her and her work.

'If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I shall never know happiness. For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge, experience, and creation. I think I have an immediate awareness in living which is far more terrible and more painful. There is no time lapse, no distance between me and the present. Instantaneous awareness. But it is also true that when I write afterwards, I see much more, I understand better, I develop and enrich' 

'You cannot possess without loving'

'The romantic submits to life, the classicist dominates it.'

{images via Pinterest and Tumblr: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7: Van Gogh, 8}

All quotes from The Diary of Anaïs Nin Vol. 1

Inspired by Ophelia

Despite her tragedy, I have always felt a strong connection with Ophelia and have many times pondered on whether she would survive in our society or is forever a doomed being regardless of times and eras. That aside, I feel we should celebrate one of the most interesting characters from the bard's hand and also a small patriotic salute to a 'fellow Dane'.

Here is some of the images from my tumblr which I feel has the Ophelia-feel to them.



Ophelia Syndrome

A long-term disease, most common among young women.
Symptoms: depression, bouts of mania, suicidal thoughts, slight insomnia, feelings of helplessness and dependence on others, the tendency to lose oneself in vivid daydreams, an intense longing for people and things one can never have, a strong sense of aestheticism and an appreciation for the beauty in little things, the urge to decorate everything with daisy chains.

 

{all images from my tumblr}

{the last is by artist Audrey Kawasaki}

Happy Birthday, Charlotte Brontë

Just a small salute to the author of Jane Eyre.

I still wonder how it came to be that in the middle of nowhere in Yorkshire, three young girls were able to write at least two of the most beloved and haunting novels of all time.

Personally, I did not start off liking the Brontës at all - too much feeling and agony! But lately I have come to understand what they were trying to show. The much wider scope of feeling than Jane Austen would ever allow explicitly told, and somehow without the moral judgement of the same. My memories of the novels are better than my direct experiences with them. Nostalgia, or succombing to peer pressure?

Anyways, the artwork and the interpretations of Jane Eyre still show some of the most beautiful images I have seen.

Please enjoy,

{Candice Lesage} {her blog is here}



{from my Pinterest}

{EmmaKisstina}

I actually don't remember anymore where I first stumpled upon Swedish illustrator Emma Kristina Hultkrantz's amazing artworks. But they had me hooked with their whimsical and yet minimalist style. The bold edges and pastel colours are an amazing combo.

Some of you may know her from Matchbook Magazine where she does a take on What's In My Bag with all the famous ladies out there, like Marilyn, Jackie, Birgitte, Coco etc.

{Anne of Green Gables}

And today, I just discovered she has started a small line of scarves with her wonderful prints. Limited of about 100 each, these could really become a treasure and a keepsake. I am quite hooked on the Marie Antoinette one.

 {Marie Antoinette}

{Glamour}

I am thinking of saving up for custom bespoke illustrations of the three luxury items I am saving for, like a white Birkin bag, Chanel 2.55 bag, and Louboutin heels. Just to help me remind myself everyday when I dance around in my apartment.

{Pink Still Life}

In case you love her work as much as I do, check out her shop at etsy and her online portfolio.

She also has a blog where she posts inspirations and small everyday things.