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Ella Amo’ Apasionadamente y Fue Correspondida(For She Loved Fiercely, And She is Well Loved),by Geraldine JavierInitially trained as a nurse, Filipino artistGeraldine Javier brings a methodicalapproach to her paintings, which areoften characterised by a sombre,melancholic air and mesmerisingbeauty. Her works reveal afascination with beauty and death,and life’s transient beauty is exploredin this painting which contains tenframed cushions embroidered withflowers or caterpillars, each holdinga preserved butterfly.The central subject of Ella Amo’Apasionadamente ostensibly depictsthe famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo,who produced over 50 self-portraitsthat captured and dramatised thesevere physical and emotionalpain she endured in life - personaltraumas played out on canvas beforea ‘voyeuristic’ art public. Crucially,Kahlo stands out in art history as theGeraldine Javier, Ella Amo’ Apasionadamente y Fue Correspondida (Forone female artist who was the most She Loved Fiercely, And She is Well Loved, 2010, oil on canvas and framedembroidery with preserved butterflies, 228.5 x 160 cm, Singapore Art Museuminstrumental in creating her owncollectioniconic image, in physical likeness andas a symbol of ‘female suffering’. It was passion and pain intertwined that characterised much ofKahlo’s personal and artistic life, and arguably one that Javier herself identifies with and romanticises.Many of Javier’s paintings depict young girls or women (occasionally in poses of rigor mortis),which may be seen as Javier’s projection of the self: self-portraits of sorts that explore the difficultrelationship that she has with an aggressive art market. Centred amidst a profusion of flowers, Kahlo/Javier averts her gaze from the public and stands immortal as an icon of beauty and sorrow - a queenin a twilight paradise.Geraldine Javier is considered one of the Philippines’ foremost contemporary painters who paint ina hyper-realist mode.37