LUNCH 1•3: Frida & Me
- Mar 18
- 2 min read
A twenty year relationship she knows nothing about.
LISTEN TO EPISODE THREE OF IT HAPPENED OVER LUNCH:
THE TABLE:
Welcome back to It Happened Over Lunch! Today I am tuning in from the living room of my house in Sicily. Spring is creeping in. The weather is unpredictable. Sicilans call March "Marzo pazzo"- "Crazy March."
SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL:
I have been in a twenty plus year relationship with Frida Kahlo, and she knows nothing about it. After I graduated from college with a BFA, I went on to work at an art gallery in downtown Houston, Texas for about a year. During that time I did some internal work and discovered the pull to further my education, and careeer in art therapy. To be accepted into a Master's degree program I needed about a semester of psychology credits. I found myself in a Fall semester of a full line up of psychology classes, including a course called Psychology and Art. It was in that class that I began my relationship with the artist.
But, it wasn't until quite recently that her art really got under my skin. Tony and I were in New York City for a quick getaway and we decided to spend an afternoon at the MOMA. Neither of us had been there, and we had always wanted to go.
Pollocks and Rothkos hung on the walls. Dorthea Lange's Migrant Mother. And, on a small column, a small two piece interactive work by Frida Kahlo, Fulang-Chang and I, 1939.
SOMETHING TRUE:
Frida had this beautiful ability to use her art to share her perspective of life and of the world. There's something brave about that.
THE THOUGHT I AM CARRYING:
What if we all showed up more? Not online, but in life? Messy, raw, unfinished?
THE CHECK:
After recording this podcast, I have a few housekeeping things to do and then later I will go up to the town square to pick Liam up from his ride home from baseball practice. A typical weekday evening in the Phifer household.
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