Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo Calderón in her parents' house in Coyoacán, which at the time was a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City. Her father was a painter and photographer of German-Jewish background, whose family originated from Oradea, Romania. Following a crippling traffic accident in 1925, Kahlo turned her attention from a medical career to painting. Drawing on her personal experiences, her works are often shocking in their stark portrayal of pain and the harsh lives of women. Fifty-five of her 143 paintings are self-portraits that incorporate personal symbolism complete with graphic anatomical references. Frida especially liked to paint self-portraits, flowers, plants, forests, animals, costumes, jewelry, and ancient gods and idols that were found only in Mexico.
She was also influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, aspects of which she portrayed in bright colors, with a mixture of realism and symbolism. Her paintings attracted the attention of the artist Diego Rivera, whom she later married, divorced, and re-married.
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