How a glamorous expatriate traded society for solitude and Surrealism.

Bridget Tichenor. Velador. 1979.

You may not believe in magic but something very strange is happening at this very moment. Your head has dissolved into thin air and I can see the rhododendrons through your stomach. It's not that you are dead or anything dramatic like that, it is simply that you are fading away and I can't even remember your name. ~Leonora Carrington, The Hearing Trumpet On view until May 6 at the Los Angeles Museum of Art, In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States. It is fascinating, intense, emotional, beautiful, disturbing, brilliant, funny and sometimes sad. In this amazing exhibition, there is a huge variety of work by amazing and talented women artists. from the LACMA website ... "While their male counterparts usually cast women as objects for their delectation, female Surrealists delved into their own subconscious and dreams, creating extraordinary visual images. Their art was primarily about identity: portraits, double portraits, self-referential images, and masquerades that demonstrate their trials and pleasures. The exhibition includes works in a variety of media dating from 1931 to 1968, and some later examples that demonstrate Surrealism's influence on the feminist movement. Iconic figures such as Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, and Remedios Varo are represented, along with lesser known or newly discovered practitioners." Dorothea Tanning, Xmas 1969 Dorothea Tanning passed after the show opened. For more about her, her life and work, click here. I went to the opening night but it was such a huge exhibition, I knew I had to go back. Included in the exhibition are more than 170 paintings, photos, prints and sculptures! It worked out perfectly to take my Mom when she was in town and we had a fantastic dinner after seeing the show. It was a perfect evening! Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940 I never paint dreams or nightmares... I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration. ~Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo, Sun and Love 1947 Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939 Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly? ~Frida Kahlo Dorothea Tanning, Birthday, 1942 My work is about leaving the door open to the imagination. ~Dorothea Tanning Bridget Tichenor, Lideres (Leaders) 1976 Remedios Varo , Creation of the Birds Rosa Rolanda, Self Portrait 1945 Painting is a need, not a choice. ~Leonora Carrington I found Sylvia Fein's work fascinating! Here is an interview with her, and you can click on her name to go to her website and see her work. There were so many amazing women artists! Many didn't have websites or even wikipedia pages, so some of my links are a little odd. It is great that the more unknown artists have had a chance to be seen and given their due, along with the more known artists. Here are a few more of the amazing women in the exhibition. Stella Snead Lee Miller Louise Bourgeois Francesca Woodman Alice Rahon Helen Lundeberg Doris Lindo Lewis Maya Deren Leonora Carrington Gertrude Abercrombie Kay Sage Art is a guarantee of sanity. That is the most important thing I have said. ~Louise Bourgeois Here is the restaurant Ray's, at LACMA, where my Mom and I had dinner. (They also have a good cafeteria at the museum which is where I usually eat!) Our delicious fish dish! They have an amazing bar there, with all kinds of crazy, fabulous drinks. I ordered this drink (below.) It was called Owl and the Pussycat and had rum, freshly squeezed lemon juice, simple syrup, chilis and strawberries. Not too sweet and a little spicy! Do you see there is one large square ice cube? The tall drinks have one large, long rectangular ice cube. Not quite sure why I find this so delightful. The exhibition was organized by LACMA curator Ilene Susan Fort and Tere Arcq of Mexico City's Museum of Modern Art, where it travels next fall, following a stop at Canada's National Museum of Fine Arts in Québec. I may actually try to see the show one more time before it closes May 6th. I just found it so inspiring and it opened my brain up to all the creative possibilities in my own art and life, and that there are no limits on how we can express ourselves. Hope this sends a little creative inspiration your way! I've been to Hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful. ~Louise Bourgeois

My family and I went to LACMA this week and saw the wonderful "In Wonderland" art show. All the artists works were by Female Surrealists of the 1930's through the 1960's. I went primarily to see Frida's paintings in person. I found such beautiful and profound paintings by women I had never heard of. I quite literally fell in love with Remedios Varo's work. Here are a few pics of my favorites. I'm very inspired now and hopefully will follow my unconscious into creating surreal artwork as the next step in my artful journey. Bridget Tichenor: "Lideres" 1967 (Leaders) Remedios Varo: "Creacion de las Aves" 1958 (Creation of the Birds) Dorr Bothwell: Hollywood Success 1940 Remedios Varo: "Mujer saliendo de psicoanalista" 1960 (woman departing psychoanalists office) Kati Horna: "Historia de una muneca" 1960 (history of a doll) Remedios Varo: "Papilla estelar" 1958 (stellar pablum) Alice Rahon: Balada para Frida Kahlo (Balad for Frida Kahlo

Bridget Bate Tichenor, Paris 1917 - Mexico City 1990 Selbstbildnis - Selfportrait Bridget Bate Tichenor (born Bridget Pamela Arkwright Bate) was a Mexican Surrealist painter of Fantasy Art in the school of Magic Realism and a Fashion Editor. Born in France and of British descent, she later considered Mexico as her home.