Courage
Being true to yourself requires bravery.
29 April 2019
For our Grade 7 unit on Courage, we looked at the courage of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo to express herself through her self-portraits. Disabled by polio as a child and seriously injured in a bus accident, Frida did not let lifelong medical problems stop her from taking a lead role in the arts scene and political landscape of Mexico. Through her work, she owned and celebrated with fullness her heritage and identity (the sum total of her ethnic, political, gender, and sexual identities) using motifs and styles of Mexican folk culture and symbols of pre-Columbian and Catholic mythologies.
In class, we studied in detail Kahlo’s 1940 ‘Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird,’ dissecting Frida’s pose, facial expression, setting, the objects on and around her and what they were likely meant to symbolize. Students learned through this exercise how to ‘read’ a portrait, to analyse an artwork as a primary source.
They were then tasked with brainstorming elements and motifs to include in their own symbolic self-portrait, based on their very personal hopes, fears and identities. They had to consider what would make a good background, a wearable object or an object behind or around their figure in the composition. They also had to consider what their own facial expression, gesture and pose might be and how much of their body would be in the composition.
With that information, students constructed digital collage self-portraits using a photo of themselves along with images sourced from the Internet. They learned how to search for specific types of images and how to use the Google Image Search settings to narrow and speed up their search. We discussed fundamentals of image composition so that they could produce more successful images and convincingly place themselves within a scene. Some students got really into it, devoting lots of extra time outside of class to assemble well-composed and engaging (and in some cases, humorous) self-portraits. In the end, all my Grade 7s created self-portraits rich with symbolism and which communicate visually who they know themselves to be and what they hope for and fear in their lives at this point in time. I admire the courage of my students to share who they are in their artwork!
“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”
