I needed a closing activity to wrap up our time with Frida. The perfect thing seemed to be a self-portrait! Big Sister was excited to paint for the afternoon while Little Sister napped. She warmed up with some free paint time, creating an abstract painting. Then we talked about Frida’s paintings and revisited the book ‘Frida Kahlo: the Artist Who Painted Herself.’ After that she was ready to create her own self-portrait. She very seriously chose her colors and brush strokes. It was fascinating to watch her at work! When she was done she added her sister to the portrait and some ‘me flowers,’ as she called them. She was on a roll at that point and decided that she would continue painting and now was taking requests. I asked for a painting of flowers. She got right to work and finished it before I got a couple of the shots I wanted, so I asked if she could add a few more flowers to the bottom of the page where it was a little blank. I thought this would buy me some more picture taking time. I had no such luck. She responded, ‘Painters don’t do bottom flowers,’ very seriously, and there was no persuading her otherwise. Her compromise was to add some dots to the bottom of the page to fill it in. She did tell me that she could paint another picture though, and that I could choose whatever I wanted because, ‘I’m a painter, I can paint anything.’ Except bottom flowers I guess. 😉
A Step in Her Shoes 