Shot of the Week: Just As She Left Them (Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s Casa Azul, Mexico City, México)

Shot of the Week: Frida Kahlo Paints (Casa Azul, Mexico City, Mexico)

Shot of the Week: Frida Kahlo Paints (Casa Azul, Mexico City, Mexico)

In all of our travels thus far, I’ve yet to encounter a story as inspirational as Frida Kahlo’s. Polio at 6. A horrendous bus vs. streetcar crash that by some miracle didn’t kill her but robbed Frida of her fertility. A brief affair between her husband and her own flesh and blood. To say that Frida Kahlo had a rough life would be an understatement. But she endured it all, channeling her pain into something beautiful: art.

Despite his unfaithfulness, Diego Rivera, Kahlo’s husband and another famous Mexican artist, clearly loved Frida dearly. After she died, he went to work ensuring that her life — her art, her individuality, her pain — would live on. And that’s what we found here at Casa Azul, the house Diego and Kahlo happily shared for years, now a museum open to the public for a nominal fee.

Upstairs in Casa Azul, we found Frida’s workspace, the place where she painted. A sign tells us that her brushes and paints remain just as she left them before she died. What a lovely, yet eerie thought…

This photo was taken with my Sony RX-100 III. (Continue to view full photo.)  Continue reading “Shot of the Week: Just As She Left Them (Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s Casa Azul, Mexico City, México)”

Desert Street Art: 20 Paintings in Twentynine Palms, an “Oasis of Murals” [PHOTO BOOK]

Desert Street Art: 20 Paintings from Twentynine Palms, California, an oasis of murals

Desert Street Art: 20 Paintings from Twentynine Palms, California, an oasis of murals

Located just north of Joshua Tree National Park in California’s Mojave Desert, Twentynine Palms is a city characterized by three things: tattoo parlors, military haircuts, and murals. (Barbershop signs advertise two haircut options here: military and civilian.) Okay, so maybe there’s more to Twentynine Palms than what’s immediately apparent when driving through, but it’s obvious that this town is highly molded by the fact that it’s been home to a US Military base for over 65 years.  Continue reading “Desert Street Art: 20 Paintings in Twentynine Palms, an “Oasis of Murals” [PHOTO BOOK]”