Happy birthday, Frida Kahlo! Here are some quotes from the artist.
“I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.”
“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?”
“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”
“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”
“I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.”
“I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return.”
John Madera is the author of Nervosities (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024). His other fiction is published in Conjunctions, Salt Hill, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His nonfiction is published in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University, New York State Council on the Arts awardee John Madera lives in New York City, Rhizomatic and manages and edits Big Other.