Georgia O'Keeffe

Can we please sit back in awe, just for a moment, at the legendary Georgia O'Keeffe? 

(PAUSE)

Okay, wonderful, now let's all raise our hands if her intimate, large-scale, floral works are the only works that come to mind when thinking of the artist......

(RAISES HAND)

Don't worry darlings, the public library can save your soul. Or at least it can enlighten you, as it did me, on the wonderful life, work, and legacy, of this incredible woman. Pick up this PBS worthy documentary or something similar to find your eyes wide open, just like the inviting petals of her sexy flower studies...

Most likely O'Keeffe has been on my mind lately because of the recent adventures of my friends Adam and Alicia Rico of Bows and Arrows Florals in Dallas, TX. Known for their distinctive style and ability to be always one step ahead, Bows and Arrows are currently hosting educational floral workshops in culturally rich locales such as Ghost Ranch. (O'Keefee's dude ranch in the high desert of New Mexico) 

Look at this woman! The lust for life in that grin, the grip of his belt loop, that ready pose, the possibility of a thrilling ride just ahead...this photograph is everything. 

O'Keeffe and Stieglitz

"Georgia O’Keeffe is the best known and most successful American woman painter; her larger-than-life, almost abstract paintings of flowers are world famous. But it was not only as an artist that she drew attention to herself. Her tremendous personal magnetism fascinated people, for she was “exceptionally beautiful and spontaneous, combined with spiritual and emotional clarity and a wonderful intensity with which she enjoyed every moment of her life to the full.” (Stieglitz). She was quick-witted and could be staggeringly direct. For the younger generation she was the epitome of an independent, creative woman who single-mindedly went her own way, never willing to make compromises which might hinder her in her painting." -fembio.org

She loved color and thought that 'it made life worth living' yet, her living spaces remained simple, earthen and high in contrast. Her passion for color, detail, and fauna was seceded only by her love of the stark white bones that she gathered and then shipped back to New York to study and paint during the winter. She thought these remnants to be "more alive than the animals themselves." In her last years she began to work with clay feeling that the artist could train the medium to come alive or to speak. Georgia was incredibly well traveled and hoped to live until she was one hundred and twenty-five. 
A woman after my own heart. 

To me, Georgia seems unshakable, and strong, like the rock faces of her beloved desert. Portraits portray her smiling and outside, spending her days in the sun as she pleases. Or, they capture her pensive, powerful and feminine, mysteriously embodying the muse and the creator to the camera's derisive eye. To be honest, it is overwhelming to compare your existence to someone who seems so....well, full. Some days I feel that artists are just people that have learned to channel their emotions into the medium of their choice. Individuals contextually sharing their stories, showing their world view through their mastery and play. Artists like O'Keeffe seem to live and breathe their art through every action of their day. Barn with snow, 1934, oil on canvas, O'Keeffe created after a stay in a mental ward for psycho-neurosis.  In the Kultur documentary mentioned above, this work is said to represent her own hibernation. It is as if she and the barn were lying in wake for the coming spring, they are both waiting for the snow to melt. 

Winter in Seattle has come once again making me feel connected to this barn in a way I can only describe as collaborative. I want to rub elbows with this barn, bear hug this barn, and put wool socks with hand warmers in this barn's boots. For it, I would sacrifice my Seattle staple (my mustard yellow beanie) so that this barn can keep the wind out of it's ears and the rain off its roof. 

How is your life an extension of the art that you hope to create? This week can you become less reactionary and more intentional with how you channel your emotions?

I encourage you to learn more about Georgia O'Keeffe and in doing so you may find that you see yourself and the world in a whole new way. 

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