The Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, is the “guardian angel” of our kitchen courtyard since the Covid lock down in 2020!
Because I was working from home and not in my office during the world wide Covid lock down, I had to do the washing, etc. I have then for the first time realized how grey and grim the kitchen courtyard was. Shops were closed and I had to make do with what was available in our tool shed. Only the Mexican flag (local party shop) and color print of the self-portrait of Frida Kahlo was bought for this “upgrade” when we were allowed to go shopping again.
HIER WAAK FRIDA
Frida on guard
The tool shed was painted in the similar striking blue of the Frida Kahlo’s house museum (left over paint of a previous project years ago) while I waited to get the color print of the Frida Kahlo self-portrait I found on the internet.
I covered the color print of the self-portrait with a heavy duty adhesive plastic (left overs of school books covered the previous year) and fixed it with a glue gun in the tool shed’s window to give “my” Frida a warm sunny view from where she is sitting…watching me doing the house chores.
BLOMME MET ‘n TWEEDE EN DERDE LEWE
Flowers with a second life
All the dried roses that were hanging around the house in their second life found a third life above the outside washing basin to make it a bit more acceptable to our Mexican artist, Frida, who loved to paint flowers too!
A friend picked up dry pine cones on the small holding of their neighbour upon my request and I first washed and dried the pine cones before dipping them in diluted roof paint (red) and outside wall paint (biscuit). Dowel sticks painted in green were fixed at the bottom after drilling a hole and heave duty glue to keep the cones in place.
The small window across the tool shed (outside bathroom) remind me of the wonder of beauty and the freedom of the mind with two quotes and one in Spanish. The quote by Frida Kahlo says: “Feet, what do I need them for, if I have wings to fly…”
WESTERSE GEUR AAN MEXIKAANSE STYL
Western flavour to Mexican style
Unused tiles from an outside table top found their place to cover the broken concrete (prefab) pillars and to tile the area above the outside basin (where we wash things like small carpets, barbecue equipment etc.)
Big steel drums well-known in the farming circles and popular for all kinds of other uses such as barbecuing/ rubbish removal were painted with the left over grey paint I had and then planted with the succulents from our backyard that are suitable in the imitation of the dry Mexican context of our very warm kitchen courtyard.
KLEUR EN GEUR IN VOL SON
Color the sun
Color and flowers are associated with the art work of Friday and whatever I had in mind also have to be okay in the harsh weather conditions in the sunny Free State on a daily basis
The not in use bird cage of the budgies from my daughter’s teenage years (at the kitchen door) now holds the birds away from the new Aloe not in full bloom yet… Succulents and empty unused glass containers such as empty over-sized wine bottles and empty Consol glass containers (for pickled fruit) nestle against the wall of Frida’s “ home” in the photo’s above.
