This is one of the most interesting painting by the enigmatic artist, Frida Kahlo, the wife of Diego Rivera who has gone on to practically eclipse him now in the popular imagination of today - although Diego himself is making a comeback and now is almost running neck and neck with the diminutive cult goddess once again.

Almost all of Frida's work was portraits, mostly of herself. This is a rare theme indeed - still life. The parrot is not unusual, howver. She included her parrots and her monkeys in her self protraits.

Although Frida is most properly and technically called a surrealist, in my opinion, she was a particular genre native to Mexico which I refer to as a “Neo-Retablo Painter” - because all of her works were essentially icons, each with a magical significance that related to some mystical expression or other and that was tied to an event or circumstance somehow - just as are retablos and ex-votos.

The frame is hand carved and hand painted, in bright colors typical of Mexican folk art.