As a distraction, Frida decided to take up painting, even though she had no training in art. Her mother Matilde hired a carpenter to build a weasel so she could paint while laying down, Matilde also installed a mirror on the underside of the bed canopy so she could see herself as she painted. By December 1925, she was well enough to walk and work but at the end of summer she was back in bed again with a plaster corset to relieve the pain from her back. Frida started to realize how Alejandro was shifting away from her emotionally and as an attempt to regain his attention she painted her first Sel-portrait. She completed it in the fall and gave it to
