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How Frida Kahlo's Love Letter Shaped Romance forPunk Poet Patti Smith

Sealed with a kiss, the 1940 note reflects the "earthly human love" between Kahlo and

fellow artist Diego iveraMy mother, a waitress, was very diligent about figuring out what I was into, so that she could buy

me the right books. For my 16th birthday she found The Fabulous Life of iego !ivera, this hugeand very famous biogra"hy.

I had already decided to be an artist, and I also dreamed of meeting another artist and beingsu""ortive of each other#s work. This book was "erfect. $ll of the relationshi"s iego !ivera had

were so interesting, but Frida %ahlo was by far the most com"elling and enduring one. I loved her. I

was taken by her beauty, her suffering, her work. $s a tall girl with black braids, she gave me a newway to braid my hair. &ometimes I wore a straw hat, like iego !ivera.

In certain ways, they were a model for me, and they hel"ed me really "re"are for my life with

!obert 'Ma""lethor"e, the late "hotogra"her and &mith#s longtime collaborator(. These were twoartists who believed in one another, and each trusted the other as a she"herd of their art. $nd that

was worth fighting for through their love affairs and fights and disa""ointments and arguments.They always came back to each other through work. They were lost without each other. !obert used

to say any "iece of work he did didn#t feel com"lete until I looked at it. iego couldn#t wait to show

Frida the "rogress of his murals, and she showed him her notebooks. The last "ainting Frida "aintedin her life was watermelons, and at the end of his life, iego also "ainted watermelons. I always

thought that was beautiful) this green fruit that o"ens u", the "ul", the flesh, the blood, these blackseeds.

*ne dreams that we could meet these "eo"le that we so admire, to see them in their lifetimes. I#ve

always had that drive. +hy do "eo"le go to $ssisi, where &t. Francis sang to the birds and they sang

to him +hy do "eo"le go to -erusalem, to Mecca It doesn#t have to be religionbased. I#ve seen/mily ickinson#s dress and /mily 0ronte#s tea cu"s. I went to find the house where my father wasborn. I have my son#s baby shirt because he wore it. It#s not more or less "recious to me than &t.

Francis# sli""ers.

In 21, I traveled to 3asa $4ul in Me5ico 3ity, the house where they led their life together. I sawthe streets where they walked and the "arks where they sat. I si""ed watermelon uice from a street

vendor#s "a"er cu". 3asa $4ul, now a museum, was so o"en. *ne could see their artifacts, wherethey sle"t, where they worked. I saw Frida#s crutches and medicine bottles and the butterflies

mounted above her bed, so she had something beautiful to view after she lost her leg. I touched her

dresses, her leather corsets. I saw iego#s old overalls and sus"enders and ust felt their "resence. Ihad a migraine, and the director of the museum had me slee" in iego#s room, adacent to Frida#s.

It was so humble, ust a modest wooden bed with a white coverlet. It restored me, calmed me down.$ song came to me as I lay there, about the butterflies above Frida#s bed. &hortly after waking, I

sang it in the garden before 22 guests.

I don#t mean to romantici4e everything. I don#t look at these two as models of behavior. 7ow as anadult, I understand both their great strengths and their weaknesses. Frida was never able to have

children. +hen you have a baby you have to relin8uish your selfcenteredness, but they were ableto act like s"oiled children with each other their whole lives. 9ad they had children their course

would have altered.

The most im"ortant lesson, though, isn#t their indiscretions and love affairs but their devotion. Theiridentities were magnified by the other. They went through their u"s and downs, "arted, came back

together, to the end of their lives. That#s what I sensed even at 16. That#s what !obert and I

e5"erienced that never diminished.

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This letter from Frida to iego: scrawled on an envelo"e she had once used to store valuablesduring a hos"ital stay, written in 1;:even though this is themost mundane, sim"lest corres"ondence, she still noted their love, their intimacy. &he held the letter

in her hands, she kissed it with her li"s, he received it and held it in his hands. This little "iece of

"a"er holds their sim"licity and their intimacy, the earthiness of their life. It contains the sender andthe receiver.

$s artists, every scra" of "a"er is meaningful. This is brown, folded. 9e saved it. &omebody ke"t it.It still e5ists.

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