Portrait Artists Frida Kahlo Born in 1907 in

Portrait Artists! Frida Kahlo • Born in 1907 in Mexico City • Died in 1954 • Best known for her selfportraits • Frida often drew from her personal experiences for her art, including her marriage, miscarriages, and numerous operations. Mexican heritage is also very important in her work, which can be seen in her use of bright colors, dramatic symbolism and primitive style. References: • http: //www. smithsonianmag. co m/artsculture/frida. html? c=y&page=1 • http: //www. fridakahlofans. com/ drawingsketch 01. html • Frith, Margaret. Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself. 2003. “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best. ” –Frida Kahlo Taylor Schuck

Lou Ros • Born in 1984 in France • Lou Ros started off painting in the streets as a graffiti artist. He became more and more interested in portrait drawing as a subject as he strived to gain meaning from the materials that he uses, which is often mixed media. The figures in his drawings reflect his experience with graffiti. They are made with quick scribbles that suggest a space. They are very gestural. The bodies he paints are indeed unstructured, often fragmented, and appear animated. He sees to reflect a world as it is lived: in constant tension, that of ordinary disaster. References: • http: //louros. fr/ • http: //louros. tumblr. co m/ • http: //www. thisiscoloss al. com/2011/11/painting s-by-lou-ros/

“What I am creating is literally black portraiture with ballpoint pen ink. I'm looking for that in-between state in an individual where the overarching definition is lost. Skin as geography is the terrain I expand by emphasizing the specificity of blackness, where an individual’s subjectivity, various realities and experiences can be drawn onto the diverse topography of the epidermis. From there, the possibilities of portraying a fully-fledged person are endless. " References: • http: //toyinodutol a. com/ • http: //africasacoun try. com/2012/12/1 8/redefiningblackness-aninterview-with-toyin -odutola/ Toyin Odutola • Born in 1985 in Nigeria • Toyin is best known for her self-portraits done entirely in black pen ink. She creates intricate and laboriously rendered portraits. Using ballpoint pen, markers, and ink, she builds her images as a geography or terrain, the surfaces taking form through black interwoven strands of texture whose particular configurations give way to the subtleties of the individual.