Frida, In Conclusion

New Mixed Media Collages by Joe McGee

“I must stop now. This is it. No more my dearest Frida!”, I said to myself when I began this latest series using the image of Frida Kahlo. This is my 4th such series dedicated to her (I do other themes as well, also in serial form, usually lasting several months to as long as 2 years) in the past decade. I have been using/altering Kahlo’s famous image, both photos of her or reproductions of her artworks for some time now to make collages. I cut these images from old calendars or cards, or more often, I look on the web, then print anything of interest (almost always her intense photos taken of her looking at the viewer) on colored, patterned art papers on my cheap device at home. I like to create little stories of her life (she looks at me, I look at her) that I make up as I work on each collage. I have done so many now, easily 100, and this will be the 3rd exhibit dedicated to her. It is just too much to have so many Fridas looking at you, so I covered over, made new paintings of most of the previous Frida works (I tend to do this anyway), some were good ones. But, I keep coming back to her. For it is easy, the works just flow out (and that is not a simple thing to find as a visual artist). But Frida, “No mas querido!”

“How did it start? What is your fascination with Frida Kahlo?”, I am often asked. It is hard for me to explain, besides the fact she died in 1954, the year I was born. But it is much more than that simple connection, and it did not happen overnight. 

I first became aware of Frida Kahlo when I purchased a book on her art in the late 1970s as I began art school. The teacher of my first painting class had instructed his students to go to a book store and purchase a couple of books of artists we liked, and bring them back to class so we could all discuss the artists we had chosen as a group. I bought two books, one on Rene Magritte, the second on Frida Kahlo. In my mind, both Magritte and Kahlo appeared to be Surrealists, to which I had some notion that my own early work was related. I was also aware of her appeal to the 1960s-70s counterculture movement I was drawn to at the time. Like many, I thought Frida’s art, her life, and indeed her very image were very cool!

So I kept up with Frida, reading any books or articles I came upon, and always looking, smiling to myself as if seeing an old friend whenever I saw her intense gaze with her famous uni-brow. She seemed to be everywhere in Popular Culture! I was a big fan, but that was it. I had not yet joined her cult. That would occur many years later and I can pinpoint the exact moment my general interest in Frida turned into an intense fascination that I cannot seem to shake.

 In the Fall of 2012, I saw in the news that the Bellarmine University Theater Department was putting on a production titled, “Frida Kahlo: A Portrait”, by Carlos-Manuel. My interest piqued; I went to a performance to check the production out. The Bellarmine Theater is quite small, I was sitting in the second row, and just a few feet from the stage. The lead actor, Victoria Reibel, was quite good in the role of Frida. I was enjoying the performance, and then it happened. As the 2nd act began, the lights came on, and there, sitting in a chair on the stage, was Frida--portrayed by Reibel, crying in extreme agony, just wailing in grief. Frida’s long hair, now shorn, lay on the floor mere feet from where I sat. At that particular moment of the play, the actor was depicting Frida just as she has found out that her husband, artist Diego Rivera, has cheated on her with her very own sister. The moment was unbearable for me to watch. I closed my eyes and I could no longer look. My first instinct was to leave the theater, to run away, but could not easily do so without causing a disruption. Then, the wailing stopped. As I reopened my eyes, it was now Frida Kahlo herself in front of me, not the actor portraying her. I was with her!

The very next day I began this series on Frida Kahlo, from the start working in collage. And now, it is 2025! “No more! It must end my longtime friend. I will never forget you Frida!”

Joe McGee (me), b. 1954. I received my BFA in Sculpture from the University of Louisville in 1986. I have now been making art for well over 35 years. Please take a look at some of my work on this site. Enjoy!

Below: My working wall in my studio, pic a few years old now, but I look the same now as a creaky 62 year old artist. No more sculpture, but I can still paint!

3 Generations of McGee Art

My site also includes a couple pages on the work of my father, folk painter Hagan McGee, still painting daily in heaven! Bless you Dad!

And, I have a page on the Fiber Art of my daughter, Tasha McGee, as well!

The 3 of us had an exhibit at Spalding University in 2011, Three Generations of McGee Art!

Below: Tasha, my father Hagan and me down at dad's birthplace, Manton, KY, summer of 2016. His final trip down to his beloved birthplace. He passed Dec., 2017, age 90.

For the Children of Flowers
Paintings by Joe McGee

            Why flowers? Well, I have always been drawn to them. I grew up here in Louisville with my brothers and sisters surrounded by flowers. My mother Grace (and her mother and her mother before) had flower beds everywhere it seemed. The different colors, shapes and textures fascinated me as a child. And more importantly, we learned early on that flowers were a source of food for insects and birds, and that they in turn pollinated the vegetables and fruit trees my father (along with my maternal grandfather) raised in our large back yard garden. Flowers, beautiful and necessary, a gift for us all from the heavens above as we share this planet together. So here, I attempt to capture, from my mind (these are all imagined works), the beauty and mystery of flowers!
            As a lifelong Louisvillian, it is a pleasure to show my take on the time-honored genre of Floral Paintings at Swanson Contemporary. I must admit, when I first began this series at the end of 2016, I had Chuck’s place (with its cool large storefront windows facing Market Street) in mind. And symbolically to me, this section of downtown Louisville, which once thrived as an important agricultural business center/gathering place for the farmers of the region, connects to my own family history. The old Haymarket complex, now long gone, was located only blocks away. There for decades, farmers such as my grandfather, Herman Breitenstein, sold their crops in the huge market complex. And they bought their seeds each year at Bunton Seed, another of the many agricultural supply businesses also formerly located nearby. Most are now long gone, relegated to the history books of Louisville. So, my flowers are a perfect fit at Swanson Gallery, right at home on E. Market Street, part the former bustling center of agricultural life here in Louisville!

            Finally, I created this series to honor my parents (Grace Jane and James Hagan McGee) for showing their children the amazing beauty of the natural world we all shared together in our large back yard. There, the many flower beds, fruit trees and the huge vegetable garden taught us that the things we grew were not only beautiful, but connected and vital for our lives. I thank my good parents for the flowers they have given their children!