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Frida Kahlo Helped Me Paint a Mural—Still Not There Yet pg185–186
Colorful companion to my memoir The Incompetent Psychic
1994
About then my first large mural job fell out of the sky. The Pelayos clan was building their dream family restaurant in a larger city a few miles north. They wanted Diego Rivera, but they got me. Most of the restaurant’s interior finishes were tile, so I worked alone through the night to avoid the screeching tile saws of the day shift.
Only didn’t feel alone in my big, empty night gallery of building debris. It turned out there was a benevolent presence with me. One night atop a ladder I was painting away when it occurred to me I wasn’t looking at my mixing palette, and hadn’t for a while. You always glance at the paint when loading a brush. I was working fast and only concentrating on the wall, yet every inattentive dip of the brush out of eyesight came back with the exact color mix for the next strokes (Twilight Zone theme song).
A psychic friend channeled a message that Frida Kahlo had been with me throughout that job. Frida had originally designed the Mayan murals Diego painted in Mexico City (uncredited). I was able to thank her. The Pelayos murals are still there in Fairfield, California and vivid after 25 years. The next generation runs the restaurant now…
