"Ella Juega Sola"

Frida Kahlo Fans. Globat. 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 17 Sept. 2009. <>

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The Kahlo painting that I selected is entitled Ella Juega Sola, which translated to She Plays Alone. In this painting, which is the medium of oil on metal, Frida depicts herself as a young girl. On her face she wears a skeleton mask. Next to the young Kahlo on the ground is another mask which appears to be the face of a tiger whose tongue is sticking out of its mouth and whose lips are rimmed in crimson. In her hands, she holds a single, yellow flower. The young Frida and the two masks make up the majority of the foreground.

While the childhood image of Frida is certainly the main focus of the painting, with her image positioned prominently in the foreground there are other elements in the work that may also catch an observer’s eye. The ground under Frida’s feet is a lush green that gradually turns into tan sand dunes in the distance. These dunes give way to blue and white mountains. The sky overhead is colored in dark blues and swirling grays.

The overall impression that I got when viewing this painting was that everything is a contradiction. The masks that are depicted in the painting as well as the yellow flower that Frida clutches are common symbols of the Mexican holiday Dia de Los Muertos. Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a celebration of death and those souls who have already passed. However, the sight of a 4 year old child standing calmly with so many symbolic representations of death surrounding them is certainly out of the ordinary. That is, a child symbolically represents innocence and life, while the masks and flower are clear representations of death and the end of life. Thus, life and death appear to be the theme of this painting.

Another juxtaposition that this painting conjures up is that of the weather in the foreground and the background. In the foreground, the grass is green and alive and Frida is clothed in a lacy, spring-time dress. Interestingly, spring serves as a frequent synonym for youth and the beginning of life. However, the background is filled with snow-capped mountains that allude to winter, which is a classic metaphor for death. All of these contradictions seem to force the viewer to see the highs and lows of a person’s life all in one image. In short, Ella Juega Sola illustrates an entire cycle of life within the constraints of one painting.