“Explosive, delicate and sophisticated”

Being my own muse with Frida Kahlo

“I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. the subject I want to know better.” 

― Frida Kahlo

Last October, I turned 40, with a very special invitation from my event planner friend Virginia Nagel. She asked me to “be Frida” for her brand’s seasonal campaign: “Arti Party Wedding by Virginia.”

Virginia, is a mom-preneur, with artistic visions, and power to inspire and role model collaboration. She is on a mission to bring diversity and inclusivity, in a highly competitive event ecosystem in Ibiza.

It is a great honour for me to be invited to represent such a powerful heroine, legendary Frida Kahlo, and to collaborate for a conscious business mission. With a full heart & body YES, with no modelling experience, I stepped into this adventure.

And I am so glad that I did.

We had a day of reflections, role playings, laughters and celebrations, in an amazing setting in an artist’s studio in Ibiza. That day of womxn collaboration, art, beauty, role playing with the spirit of Frida made an impact on me.

Here are my 6 inspirations by Frida Kahlo, for modern womxn and men;

1-Embrace self as part of a whole. 

She used her self-portraits as gates to bigger ideas. Using self image as a point of entry, she built references that universalize the portrait, making it a starting point for wider ideas. 

There are no barriers between private and public. Her marriage ended so she painted Self Portrait with Cropped Hair, 1940, the brown strands at your feet symbolic of the way she felt castrated. She identified with Mexico so she painted herself with her damaged body as a thriving plant rooted in the Mexican soil.

Turning 40 is a milestone in my life. I see the change in my seasons and forests, my deep awakening, the excitement of what is coming as well as letting go off what no longer belongs to my future and missions. This delicate, vulnerable self inquiry came out in our photo day- I was naked in my emotions, and how amazing it was to see, share and spread my journey through the art and craft of talented womxn.

This is the power of womxn using their own heroine’s journeys as a way of transcending personal and collective stories, and lead liberation for the wellbeing of all.

• What are your stories and experiences that want to come home, and be embraced by you? How can you allow yourself to unmask and be whole?

2-Paint your own life: 

 In constant pain, unable to carry a child, one leg shorter than another, encased in a corset to enable her to hold herself straight, Frida could have chosen a victim story.

But she wanted to dance and debate and be admired – and through her paintings she told the world that she did and she was. She defined herself with her authentic looks, personality, intelligence and her art. She became her own muse, art and heroine!

Exactly our mission with The Heroines & our annual The Heroines Journey!

Our day of role playing made me leave behind my identity, as Canay, and embody the spirit of Frida. Like a download of information and energy, I received what I needed; feeling, sitting, thinking like Frida, and becoming her.

Becoming my own muse, with Frida

As we focus in our womxn leadership platform, The Heroines, we can own our Super Powers to paint our lives, with our own colors. Living & serving with intention and attention as precious artists, born to create.

• How much of what you create & contribute to is your conscious choice? Are you the best art of yourself?

3- You courage in life is equal to your surrender to death:

“Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.” 

― Frida Kahlo

Frida suggested that people  had to invent or imagine heroes and gods to overcome their fear of death. Frida understood that death is a path to another form of life. With a Christian mother and a German, possibly Jewish father she forged her own pantheistic vision of humanity at one with nature in an unceasing cycle of birth and death. 

In ancient Mexican culture, death also means rebirth and life. In this portrait, Thinking About Death (1943), Kahlo put herself against a background with lavish green leaves, which is a symbol of life. The skull and bones are positioned as a third eye above Kahlo’s famously winged monobrow.

Courtesy of www.FridaKahlo.org

“Vivir de recuerdos es morir.” ― Frida Kahlo

We are not alive when we are living on our memories. We are thoughting and felting, as a past silhouette of a mind story. Let’s claim and live our freedom, NOW.

“We cannot lead from behind by repeating ourselves. Let’s dare to be alive now, surrender to create with diversity of cultures and act from a caring heart. This is us awakening to our female power and to our freedom as humanity, as nature” ― Canay Atalay

• How present are you? Do you dare to die and be reborn every second, by surrendering to generous presence?

4-Communicate your truth

Kahlo is a guerrilla feminist whose work is imbued with her true emotions, personal stories as well as nationalist and left wing politics. Even a seemingly innocent work like the self-portrait she made for Trotsky after their short affair has a format based on Mexican versions of baroque portraiture. Look at any image, and the clothing, the animals, the jewellery, the mythic references, the borrowings from folk art, all reveal her commitment to her country’s history, products, and beliefs.

Sometimes with baby steps and sometimes in quantum leaps, we can allow ourselves to come out. Real freedom is not a concept outside of to fight for and win against enemies, but an inner journey to give permissions to ourselves to be worthy enough to live our truth.

• How much of what you think, say, act and spread is your truth? What do you need to communicate your truth?

5- Be resourceful:

Frida Kahlo had no formal art school training. Her experience was closer to those female would-be artists in the centuries before art schools allowed them in than to the trained women artists of the 20th century. Her mother’s gift of paints and a mirror above her bed when she was recuperating from the bus accident was all that she needed to start. 

Our womxn collaboration of our photo day was a brilliant example of how we can co-create new realities that shine the craft and talents of everyone. Our principles are horizontal relationships, co-creation with each other and life, seeing the beauty and art in every detail…

There is so much that we can create as we open our hearts and minds to the unknowns, with the confidence in self, other and this magical life!

• What are you waiting for to live your one precious life fully? What do you need to begin your next project, experiment & experience?

6-Cultures of Celebration

Celebration is the human Super Power, where we elevate ourselves and each other, allowing new possibilities. It is an expression of joy-love, and it is beyond words, and thoughts.

As the heroines, we love inspiring cultures of celebration, this is how we define success, any moment and awareness that brings celebration.

“There is nothing more precious than laughter” 

― Frida Kahlo, The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait

The day ended intimate conversations, gifting of flowers, books, words and recognition of each others’ beauty and art.

Pure bliss. Hmmm….

• What are your reasons to celebrate life? How can you bring more celebration to your everyday life & business?

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Credentials: So much gratitude to our team of talented womxn collaborators:

Planning: @artiparty.weddings
Pictures: @rosierandisiphotography
Frida: @theheroines.co @canay.atalay
Hair and makeup: @nwhairmakeupbeauty
Accessories:@cactusibiza
Venue: @alexinibiza 's home & studio
Dalias: @elcamino_2020
Flowers artist: @umarekaflowerstudio @artiparty.weddings

Here is the question of the week:

Who is your all time favourite heroine? And what inspirations do you get from her?

❤️ I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Happy Sunday!

With Love, Joy & Courage,

Canay Atalay

✨ The Heroines
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