Portraits with Symbolism, inspired by Frida Kahlo

4th and 5th graders learned about the great portrait artist Frida Kahlo, who used symbolism in all of her paintings.  We first learned about Kahlo's life, then looked at her self-portraits to pick out and decipher the symbols she used.  Students are able to identify symbols in Kahlo's self-portraits based on different aspects of her life.  For example, Kahlo had polio as a child and was in a horrible bus/train accident as a teenager so she was in a lot of pain.  In many portraits Kahlo chooses to paint a symbol to represents the physical pain she was in (in the painting below, her suffering is represented by her hair ribbon wrapped around her throat, almost choking her).  Student then selected symbols that best represent both their culture/heritage as well as their individual personalities and incorporated those symbols into their self-portraits.  Students were tasked with drawing their self-portrait both in correct proportions, as well as by drawing what they see (using a mirror) instead of drawing what they think different facial features should look like. 

"Self Portrait with Monkey" Frida Kahlo, 1940 

Facial Proportions