I've never been a Selma Hayek fan. Actually, she's always irritated me. Not sure why, maybe it was that increadibly tiny waist??? (just kidding!) But then. I saw Frida. Isn't it funny how seeing an actor in a different role can make you love them? (happened with Nicholas Cage too.) I now love Selma! So the movie. It was my treat to myself last Friday night. I knew the moment it began I would fall in love with it. It opens in a Mexican courtyard. The colors. They were intoxicating. The walls were cobolt blue and the accents a deep barn red. And the cactus green. Oh the green! Look for this combo in a future painting! So I knew at once I was smitten. The movie. The woman. So much passion lived in her life. So much pain, both emotional and physical. I have never really studied her paintings. But now I know I am changed. Her artwork will be in my house. I have been influenced in the past by Mexican pottery with the bold colors they use. When we go to El Paso (my husband is Mexican-his whole family lives there) I love going to see the pink houses and all the green cypress trees, going over the border to see the painted pottery. I have a mexican tile that is right at my desk as I type because I love to look at the flower pattern on it. I want to paint my living room and dining room a warm terra cotta. Bring so much more color into my life. I try to be bright and vivid with my art, maybe that is why this movie touched me so much. The color, the passion. Frida lived her life on her terms and even in the most terrible moments, she never said she was sorry for who she was or how she lived. And the best part was it showed those moments. Her insecurities as an artist, always being humble, insisting she was not that good. But she always followed her her heart, even when it meant having it broken. And one of the best lines from the movie came from the character that played her husband Diego. He said, "If you are a painter you will paint. You will paint for the rest of your life because you must." Exactly.