5 Things You Didn't Know about Georgia O'Keefe - Off the Wall Friday

Sitting in my parents' cabin, I watched as fall turned into November.  I've gotten a lot done on my pinwheels quilt and have found it very therapeutic.   I also started thinking about the exciting things that are happening this month.  The best of which is the upcoming exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art entitled, Georgia O'Keefe, Living Modern.  Its going to offer  "a unique look into the fascinating connections between the paintings, personal style, and public persona of one of America’s most iconic artists."  The idea of connecting her work with her clothes is really interesting to me.

So with this in mind I thought I would do a little research into Georgia O'Keefe.

5 Things You Didn't Know about Georgia O'Keefe

1.  She painted more than close up of flowers.  In fact, the flowers series only accounts for 200 off her over 2,000 paintings.  She also rejects the popular sexual interpretation of her flower paintings.  In 1943, she said, “Well—I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flowers you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower—and I don’t.” 

2.  She loved to paint in the back of her car.   She would turn the passenger seat around and place the canvas on the backseat as an easel.  The car was mobile and kept her out of the hot desert sun.

3.  She painted in all sorts of weather.  She was known to paint in the hottest heat of summer, under tents during downpours and with gloves on when the weather turned cold.  She loved nature and enjoyed totally immersing herself in it to create her art.

4.  She married the art dealer,  Alfred Stieglitz who propelled her to fame.  In fact, he divorced his wife, to marry her.  Their love affair not only included over 25,000 pages of love letters but also many extra marital affairs.  Still they stayed together till the day  Stieglitz died.

5.   She quit painting three times - once while she took jobs to help support her family, once while hospitalized during a nervous breakdown and finally at the age of 95 with her failing eyesight.  She then took up sculpture.

My favorite quote from O'Keefe is "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do."  I can totally relate!



I definitely plan on getting to Cleveland this holiday season and I hope you do too!  The exhibit runs November 23, 2018 through March 3, 2019.

So What Have Been Up to Creatively?