-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Famous for honest self-portraits , Mexican artist Frida Kahlo said that she painted her reality and that her paintings carried a message of pain . Her life was full of it , both physical and emotional , and she used it to fuel her art . Frida Kahlo was born in this house and lived in it with her husband , Diego Rivera . Much can be learned about both her private and public life by visiting the home she shared , first with her parents and later with her painter husband , Diego Rivera . The bold blue house with red trim stands out in the quiet residential street of the Coyoacán section of Mexico City . It was painted that way because Kahlo and Rivera felt that the bright colors represented Mexican culture better than the original white paint . This home-turned-museum , known as La Casa Azul , is where Frida Kahlo was born , began to paint and died , making the house a witness to one of the most important artistic lives in Mexican history . The museum entrance leads to a large patio where pre-Columbian sculptures collected by Diego Rivera throughout his lifetime are scattered among the plants and fountains . The couple 's love for traditional Mexican art can be seen throughout the house , from the large fireplace designed by Rivera that dominates the first room , resembling a step pyramid like the ones built by the Mayas and Aztecs , to Kahlo 's paintings and the couple 's collection of smaller sculptures . Some of Kahlo 's most well-known works , such as `` Viva la Vida , '' a still life of watermelons , are on display in the museum , but it is the personal objects that tell the most interesting stories . An entire room is dedicated to communist paraphernalia . Kahlo was very politically active and did not hide her political leanings . In fact , she and Rivera invited exiled Russian communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his wife to live with them in the late '30s . As visitors move through the museum , it is the remnants of Kahlo and Rivera 's private life that begin to tell their story . Part of the collection is a bed with a mirror attached to it , used by Kahlo in order to create many of her celebrated self-portraits . At the age of 18 , she was left bedridden for a few months when her spine was broken in a serious bus and trolley accident . It was during those months that Kahlo began to paint , to help pass the time and keep her spirits up . Also on view are several corsets that Kahlo had to wear during her lifetime because of lasting injuries from the accident , several surgeries and a childhood bout of polio . It was because she began painting that Kahlo met Diego Rivera , who was at the time a famous Mexican muralist . Kahlo wanted to know whether she had talent enough to make art a career , so she sought out Rivera to get his opinion . That was the start of their famously tempestuous relationship . They were married for the first time in 1929 , but after infidelities on both sides -LRB- including an affair between Kahlo and Trotsky -RRB- , they divorced in 1939 . They were married again a year later . She once commented on their relationship , saying that there had been two great accidents in her life , the trolley and Diego ; Diego , she claimed , had been the worst of the two . The house , which was witness to the birth of Kahlo on July 6 , 1907 , was also witness to her death July 13 , 1954 . Rivera put her ashes in a pre-Columbian urn , which remains in the house to this day . He donated the house in 1957 , and it opened to the public as La Casa Azul , Museo Frida Kahlo in 1958 . So the blue house , which has seen so much of the history of two of Mexico 's most famous artists and was witness to so much of Kahlo 's personal suffering , is open to the public , ready to tell their story to all who are willing to listen .