FRIDA KAHLO AND MY LEFT LEG

At first sight of Kahlo's painting The Two Fridas, Emily Rapp Black felt a connection with the artist. An amputee from childhood, Rapp Black grew up with a succession of prosthetic limbs, and learned that she had to hide her disability from the world.

Kahlo sustained lifelong injuries after a horrific bus crash and her right leg was eventually amputated. In Kahlo's art, Rapp Black recognised her own life, from the numerous operations to the compulsion to create to silence pain. Here she tells her story of losing her infant son to Tay-Sachs, giving birth to a daughter, and learning to accept her body. She writes of how Frida Kahlo inspired her to find a way forward when all seemed lost.



Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir and The Still Point of the Turning World, a New York Times bestseller and an Editor's Pick. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including VOGUE, the New York Times, TIME, the Wall Street Journal, O the Oprah Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times.