As Frida, un retablo launches its 2013 national tour this week, along the corridors of the Milagro Theatre lobby, we proudly present Lizdaly Cancel’s artwork.  Each piece displays an essence of empowerment, beauty, sensuality, struggle through the elaborate use of deep colors that will surely move and make one ponder the power which women circulate in this world.

Surely enough, one can examine closely and discover the link between her paintings with our show.  In fact, we at Milagro thought one particular piece called Bodegón O, an acrylic base in canvas, captures a unique resemblance of Frida’s tragic moment that altered her life when el troli collided violently with the bus in which Frida had been riding in at the time.  The orbital vase, mimicking Frida’s eye, views the petals as they suspend in time just a second before the accident. The petal’s absence of stems portrays an abstract idea of an event that will twist each petal’s fate in life. The black-and-white checkered column is a representation of Frida’s health which at one point was white but freakishly turned to a morbid black of pain, suffering and anguish. And the helix layered on the black-and-white checkered column illustrates Frida’s health struggle and her endless desire to have children which permanently resulted in agony, distress and woe.

Lizdaly Cancel’s work is astonishing and remarkably profound, and we are elated to have her paintings in our theatre and accompany our Frida, un retablo production.  We invite our audience to come an hour before the show and enjoy her passion along with the works of other artists at Milagro.