Wednesday, September 09, 2009

georgia o



last night i had a dream i met georgia o and she was quasi homeless and no one else recognized her. i had the most fascinating conversation with her about art and life and staying true to self. my friend donna pointed me to this footage of 92 year old o'keeffe. i think, perhaps, regardless of your feeling towards her art it is interesting to listen to her talk. i greatly admire georgia for paving the way for future female artists. i read her bio a couple years ago and was struck by what a drastically different time and how her strong willed persistence pioneered the way for us.

i also am a big fan of new mexico, so that piles on the love! last year my friend jessie and i took a road trip to one of georgia's beloved homes and walked mesas and her paintings resonated anew.

i like in this video if you get far enough she says something like "i tried to paint what i saw. i thought someone could tell me how to paint the landscape, but i found nobody could". i love this sentiment of sitting down and trying and doing it your own way.

thanks georgia o,
mati

14 comments:

Faith said...

I am such a big fan of O'Keefe too, I read her biography shortly after graduating college years ago and it changed my whole way of thinking about myself as an artist. We also almost moved to New Mexico last year, such a powerful landscape! Thanks for posting this.

stef said...

oooh! thank you for sharing ~ such beauty in her voice and words. It's a great reminder to cherish the women who did pave the way for us. xoxo

Maranda @ {Evoked} said...

I really really enjoyed watching this! Very inspirational. She was so secure in who she was as an artist...

Thank you so much for sharing this!

Misti said...

Thank you for sharing that. Georgia O'Keefe is one of my favorite artists. I would love to see her paintings in person.

OdetteO said...

I love that! Thank you so much for posting it.
I love her stubbornness & wry sense of humor (like her red, white & blue cow skull painting that was done as a silent rebuttal to all the men around her going on & on about the "great American" this or that, who had never travelled past the Hudson river.)

matirose said...

i'm so glad you all liked it too! and yes she is rather badass!

heather l murphy said...

wow mati, thanks for posting this! i am a fan of georgia + new mexico too. she had an "edge" that seemed unheard of at that time, so solid in herself.

mjb said...

Thanks so much for posting it! I loved the line that no one could teach her to paint "her" landscape, they could only tell her how they painted theirs.

Rap Music said...

Very interesting video!

nova robinson said...

This was very moving. Watching her, don't you just feel that you MUST live authentically? That there really isn't any other way? I will put it on my own blog, as well. Thank you for posting this. (and thank you for commenting about my comment that made you laugh.)

risa said...

Thank you for posting the video. I've watched it before, but it's wonderful to watch it again.

Kerstin Svendsen said...

oh that was so good. made me teary.

amy said...

you've probably seen this article .. but i thought of your post when i read it

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/arts/design/18okeeffe.html

Hip hop Honeys said...

Very interesting