Frida Kahlo is one of my favourite artists and personalities to dress up as. I have dawned the unibrow for Cinco de Mayo parties in the past but found it much more rewarding using the costume as a tool to teach rather than use it to down Coronas.

Before getting into the education side of things, here is a recap of the Frida costume and it’s evolution from 2012 – 2015.

Cinco de Mayo 2012, Shanghai, China

Cinco de Mayo 2013, Shanghai, China

Cinco de Mayo 2015, Hong Kong, China

Cinco de Mayo 2016, Hong Kong, China

Although I definitely crushed some guac while dressed like the holy unibrowed-one, I have also used her as inspiration to teach self-portaiture, symmetry, collage and expression. Here is the lesson I did with my upper primary students.

Students began by looking at the self portraits of many artists and learned the difference between a portrait and self portraits. We then narrowed it down to discuss the components of Frida Kahlo’s portraits as she portrayed aspects of her life and how she felt in her paintings which the student who do in their artwork.

They then sketched a self-portrait in pencil using a hand mirror to observe their features. After outlining them in black marker, students coloured them in with colours pencils and began creating a collaged background that expressed who they are as a person or how they felt when they created the self-portrait.

The last words that Frida ever uttered were, ‘I hope the exit is joyful and that I never return.’ Sorry Frida, but I plan to bring you back every year. However, I will make sure it is to tell you story of pain, passion and painting. until next year Frida, adios chica!