Their purpose was to thank saints for their protection during a calamity, and they normally depicted an event, such as an illness or an accident, from which its commissioner had been saved. Kahlo soon began a relationship with Rivera, who was 21 years her senior and had two common-law wives. While Arias suffered minor injuries, Frida was impaled with an iron handrail that went through her pelvis. Kahlo painted that work while traveling in the United States (1930–33) with Rivera, who had received commissions for murals from several cities. This reflects in a positive sense the theme of personal growth; in a negative sense of being trapped in a particular place, time and situation; and in an ambiguous sense of how memories of the past influence the present for good and/or ill.

Later, however, Kahlo claimed that she was born in 1910 so people would directly associate her with the revolution.

During her slow recovery, Kahlo taught herself to paint, and she read frequently, studying the art of the Old Masters. Shortly after their introduction in 1928, Kahlo asked him to judge whether her paintings showed enough talent for her to pursue a career as an artist. He immediately recognized her talent and her unique expression as truly special and uniquely Mexican. The accident left her in a great deal of pain while she recovered in a full body cast; she painted to occupy her time during her temporary state of immobilization.

During the late 1930s, in the face of rising Nazism in Germany, Frida acknowledged and asserted her German heritage by spelling her name, Frieda (an allusion to "Frieden", which means "peace" in German). When her health problems made it difficult for her to commute to the school in Mexico City, she began to hold her lessons at La Casa Azul. Frida is also the story of her tempestuous marriage to the muralist Diego Rivera, her love affairs with numerous, diverse men such as Isamu Noguchi and Leon Trotsky, her involvement with the Communist Party, her absorbtion in Mexican folklore and culture, and of the inspiration behind her unforgettable art.Estimates vary on how many paintings Kahlo made during her life, with figures ranging from fewer than 150 [82] to around 200.