Frida Kahlo was born 6 July 1907 in Mexico and died 13 July 1954, only 47 years old. On 17 September 1925, Frida was on her way home from school by bus when the bus collided with a tram. Multiple people on the bus died but Frida Kahlo survived, albeit seriously injured. She fractured her ribs, both her legs, her collarbone and the pelvic bone. She was bedridden for a long time since she wasn’t able to walk, but being bedridden wasn’t only negative; it was actually at this point that she started painting! She had a specially-made easel that let her paint without leaving the bed, and she usually painted herself, friends and her sisters.

Frida spend most of 1950 in hospital where she underwent a new spine surgery. The surgery caused an infection, however, which led to multiple follow-up surgeries. When she was finally let out from the hospital, she had to be in a wheelchair or use crutches to be able to walk properly. After the surgery, Frida became interested in politics and joined a party. Around this time, her painting style also changed; her brushstrokes went from careful and delicate to hasty, and her use of colors became more brash.

Kahlo’s health got worse, and in August 1953 she got gangrene in her right leg which later had to be amputated. During this time her husband, Diego Rivera, was having his second affair. Frida Kahlo got depressed from everything happening in her life, and attempted suicide by overdose. She was, once again, hospitalized in 1954, and also began to paint again after a year-long break.

Frida Kahlo was politically involved until her death in 1954. She even attended a demonstration against CIA invasion of Guatemala on 2 July 1954. The demonstration made her illness worse and on 12 July 1954, she came down with a really high fever and was in a lot of pain. Frida’s nurse found her dead 6 am the following morning. The cause of death is said to be pulmonary embolism, however, some people think it might have been suicide.

Leonid Afremov was born 12 July 1955 in Vitebsk, Belarus, and is a Russian-Israeli modern impressionistic artist. He was raised in a traditional Jewish home. Afremov was a good student in school and especially liked history and art. He attended all different art classes that the school offered and even took private classes. Leonid Afremov graduated high school in 1973 and later continued his studies at Vitebsk Education Institute, where he studied art and graphics.

In 1976, he married Inessa Kagan, and a year later his first son was born. At the time, Leonid Afremov lived together with his family and Inessa Kagan’s parents, grandmother and sister in a small two-room apartment. Afremov worked as a label designer for a local beer and liquor factory, and also worked briefly in a local theater as a set designer. Thanks to him holding two jobs, the family was able to move to a house. Two years after they had moved to their house, they got their second son.

During 1986, the Chernobyl disaster happened, and Vitebsk lived only a few hundred kilometers away from the site. Food and water in the area wasn’t consumable and small children, including Afremov’s own sons, were affected by the radiation. Leonid Afremov also experienced a lot of discrimination during that time because of his Jewish roots. In the late 1980s, the liberal politics allowed Jewish soviets to migrate to Israel, which was exactly what Afremov did. In early 1990, his family moved to Israel where they began their new life.

However, his life in Israel didn’t really go as planned. The people of Israel didn’t like the Russian immigrants, and they were thus looked down upon and discriminated against. Afremov’s art was sold very cheaply, which made their living very hard. Even though their income was very small, Afremov managed to open a gallery; however, the local Israeli newspaper refused to publish any advertisements for his gallery. Leonid Afremov’s gallery was vandalized multiple times and his art was destroyed.

In 2002 Afremov and his family moved to the US in hopes of not being discriminated against anymore. He went from gallery to gallery in hopes of earning some money, but he always felt that he never got the amount of money his paintings were worth. In 2004, his second son was introduced to eBay by a friend. They tried selling Leonid Afremov’s paintings there, and it went much better. They earned hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for his paintings. In 2007 Leonid, with the help of his sons, started his own site where you, to this day, can buy paintings made by him.

In March 2010 he moved to Playa Del Carmen in Mexico where he still lives today.