Partly because I saw something on TV as a kid that said Tim Burton's work was heavily influenced by everything he saw whilst visiting the day of the dead festival. After Edward Scissorhands, he could do no wrong.
Partly because of the James Taylor song of the same name.
Partly, as I've got older, because of the culture, the colour, the architecture and the religious imagery.
And a lot because of Frida Kahlo:
Her life is fascinating, her paintings even more so.
I knew she was married to Diego Rivera, another famous Mexican artist, but I had never really seen any of his works that drew me in like Frida.
That was until I chanced upon an exhibition of Mexican prints at the Djanogly Gallery in Nottingham (called Revolution on Paper) earlier this year and saw this:
After studying Art History for three years I thought I'd seen the full spectrum of naked women and a lot of them I love, from Ingres to Picasso, via Cabanel, Elvgren and Freud but this just made me stop and stare. It took a while to hunt down but every time I look at it I love it a bit more. The eyes and the thighs. Definitely something about the eyes and the thighs. And the hair.
Oh, and that little peek of pattern on the lower surface.
So, now I have a whole new reason to go to Mexico...
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