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Though famed Mexican artist-turned-icon with a disability, Frida Kahlo, was overshadowed by her husband Diego Rivera in her lifetime, her unusual, colorful, and confessional paintings seem to be everywhere today.

Appearing on museum walls and in books as well as videos and documentaries, many of her tormented self portraits reflect the physical pain she lived with - the result of childhood polio and a streetcar accident that shattered her adolescent hip and spine. (Some historians also claim Kahlo was born with a spinal disability, possibly spina bifida.)

Most of the 150 or so of her works still in rotation are self portraits, though only the later ones depict her in a wheelchair. Even so, Kahlo’s disability was a major factor in her decision to become an artist - she spent much of life bedridden, on crutches, or in a wheelchair recovering from over 30 operations. It was during one such recovery period that she began painting with the help of a special easel.

Many people believe that Kahlo’s obsession with self portraits was a form of therapy. It seems quite plausible that her body and all that it had survived were central to many of her thoughts and experiences. But Kahlo’s fans aren’t just drawn to her art - the sum total of her controversial and torrential life is what many find so fascinating.