#17 Frida y Flores
July 09, 2025
In 2013 I started to paint big flowers in Glass Cathedrals. Well, medium-to-small size flowers really, but as soon as I popped a tiny figure in the box, my paintings blossomed into edens of paradisical-proportions.
My Flower Painting Period ;) coincided with my family’s first visit to Sayulita in Mexico, situated a quick paddle down the Pacific coast from our home in Marin, California.
In Sayulita I made my first Frida Kahlo Glass Cathedral artbox portraits — inspired by the cultural heritage, folk art, colours and, of course, flowers, of Mexico. Which came first, the flower or the Frida? I honestly couldn’t say!
In 2018 and 2019 I visited the exhibition of Frida Kahlo’s outfits at her home “Casa Azul” in Mexico City – and read that when Frida arrived in a new place, she’d often make such a jingly jangly sparkly colourful first impression that the local children would think the circus had come to town!
For me (and I admit, I am easily seduced by a vintage sequined blouse or a swirling skirt) – Frida’s extraordinary life force was communicated in her art, but more entrancingly through her choice of dress and ornamentation, her desire to live BIG even as life was pummelled with tragedy and heartbreak.
When I’m creating Frida’s tiny outfits, I look through my boxes of treasures and ephemera as if through the eyes of a 3/4 inch Frida Kahlo, and imagine the delight she might have felt.
A single piece of glitter becomes a pendant, a scrap of golden thread a belt, a broken sequin becomes a headdress and a torn strip of tape becomes a beautifully creased full-length skirt.
During our time in California, I went to Mexico 6 times… 2013 Sayulita, 2015 Mexico City, 2016 Guadalajara + Guanajuato, 2018 Mexico City + Puebla, 2018/9 Sayulita and most recently 2019 Mexico City + Oaxaca. I can’t WAIT to go again. Es hora de volver!
And so concludes Numero 17 of my 20 emails to mark 20 years of Glass Cathedrals. If you’d like to browse the previous 16, they are now all available on the NEWS channel on my website: https://glasscathedrals.com/news
Let’s hope I can finish them off before I get to my 25th year anniversary (21st now in progress!)
Sending lots of love to you all,
Lisa
* Wait! Wait! I promised you a chance to win a Glass Cathedral. Keep scrolling loyal reader *
* WIN A VINTAGE FRIDA KAHLO GLASS CATHEDRAL *
Frida en Rosa was my first painted flower Glass Cathedral, made in Sayulita, Mexico in 2013. I’d saved her for myself but now you can win this artwork (worth £890, fancy that).
