{Warning: F-bombs up ahead.}

Frida Kahlo came into the world and began painting herself, way before the ‘selfie’ era.

Like so many artists, her artwork didn’t become famous until after she died, but she painted because she loved it, and she needed it as a way of expressing extreme physical and emotional pain.

Without the internet and the online writing community, I know for a fact that I would feel a lot more fucked up or strange than I do feel, now.

As a twenty-something, a creative, and someone who’s figuring out her life, I feel a lot of gratitude for the way the internet (especially social media and blogging) connects me with individuals who are just as weird and flawed as me.

It normalises, reassures, and brings solace to anxieties that would have a much stronger hold without this resource and net of connection.

“I don’t paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.” ~ Frida Khalo

I write because to write and create, is to keep myself alive and to keep myself present, and to allow myself to get lost in a way that I know I’ll always find myself, again.

I share my words with the hope that they are of benefit, but the reason I create them is because I need the release and the creative process, whether the words get seen by the world or solely by myself.

Frida painted because it brought benefit to her, and little did she know it would then bring benefit to millions of others, too.

Seeing a face I’ve so often seen on canvas, in real life (well, video-real-life), her beauty is even greater and just as mesmerising.

And what an incredible life.

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Editor: Travis May

Photo: elephant archives