When I was a little girl, I went to the Museum of Modern Art and saw scary strange paintings. A huge green face looked at a creepy cow, and figures screamed breasts as they hung out of dresses. I hid my eyes.
Then I opened them.
Who’s THAT? I said. The Lady with the Monkey?
Frida Kahlo, said my mother, and then she smiled. Isn’t this picture marvelously strange?
My mother was marvelously strange, as was her mother – a former ballet-dancer, sometime exotic dancer, down-on-her-luck Russian princess.
I loved and continue to love the marvelously strange women. It was that visit to MOMA with MOM that made me realize how wonderful strange women are.
As I surf the web, I see Frida and her monkey everywhere — inspiring more marvelous strangeness in women and in all artists connected to the kinky, queer, kind feminine.
Happy Birthday Frida from all of us here in Magically Real!
Love and hugs –
The Management
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Published by Stephanie Barbé Hammer
Stephanie Barbé Hammer is a magical realist prose fiction writer, novelist, occasional essayist, and a committed, intermittent poet. A 6-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize she has published work in Hayden's Ferry, Pearl, CRATE, Rhapsoidia, NYCBigCityLit, the East Jasmine Review, Apeiron, Inlandia, Literary Alchemy and the Bellevue Literary Review among other places. Her novel _The Puppet Turners of Narrow Interior_ appeared in March 2015 with Urban Farmhouse Press, and her Narrow Interior novelette, _Rescue Plan, appeared in February 2021 with Bamboo Dart Press. Her poetry collection _How Formal?_ was published in 2014 with Spout Hill Press and her prose poem collection _SEX WITH BUILDINGS_ was published in May 2012 by Dancing Girl Press. Stephanie flunked early retirement at the University of California Riverside and is currently feeding her teaching love at Edmonds Community College, Hugo House and the Inlandia Institute. iShe is currently managing editor for SHARK REEF literary magazine and is working on two new novels, and two new poetry collections, Her manual on how to write magical realism _Delicious Strangeness_ is available from Spout Hill Press.
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Nicely said! bravo for Frida Kahlo!
Indeed, Molly bot! Thanks for posting! (-: