Christine R. Bay

An oil painting piece on 40cm x 40cm primed linen board. The piece was originally exhibited at the Dia De Muertos Singapore 2017 event and will be exhibited again at the “All Can Be Frida” event at The Artists' Pool (London) in 2018.

Frida had braved and endured pains throughout her life and in a way, she was trying to mend her soul by painting her stories to us. In her journal, she wrote down a list of colours and her interpretation of them. I decided to use her set of “happy” colours for my piece to indicate familiarity, hope and strength. I have used familiar symbolism, but this time, her deer is bandaged (to indicate healing) with the arrows all taken out. She’s also repairing her torn white lace dress. The skull and a few drying leaves indicate there are realities of life but warmth and hope can still exists (in the form of the crown of blooms).