Words that come to mind when looking at The Broken Column are mesmerizing, compelling, capturing, anguish, distress, torment, pain. I was captured by Frida Kahlo's portal of herself in The Broken Column as I found myself becoming aware of her pain with an intense passion. It was as almost, as if her eyes were looking directly at me, telling me the story of her sorrows. I was drawn to her suffering.
             Frida Kahlo's was a Mexican painter. Her life was marked by physical suffering, started with the polio contracted at the age of five and worsens by her life-dominating event occurred in 1925. In 1925, Kahlo was involved in a bus accident that so seriously injured her that she had to undergo some thirty-five medical operations; this would set the pattern for much of the rest of her life. During her slow recovery from the trauma, Kahlo taught herself to paint. In 1926, during her convalescence, she painted her first self-portrait, the beginning of a long series in which she charted the events of her life and her emotional reactions to them. It is as though, through her paintings she would reveal herself or at least herself after her ordeal. She would marry and soon find herself in the artistic shadow of her famous husband, Diego Rivera. Diego a womanizer would have several affairs, including Frida's sister, Christina. Frida said to a friend, "I have suffered two serious accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar ran over me. The other accident was Diego." [1]
             She became known for illustrating "great pain and suffering, both mental and physical" in her art. [2] "Usually classed as a surrealist, the she had no special explanation for her methods. She said only: "I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration." [3]
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