I had a wonderful time at the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit. I was more fascinated by her photography, a significant part of her art than I realized.
She took photos of everyone and everything with her Leica 35 mm, just as I do with my Mirrorless camera (which didn’t exist in her time), and had some important lessons for me: photographing what I see, not what people tell me to see, and looking for new and more modern ways to capture the beautify of things, flowers, rocks, hills and especially landscape. I’ll be writing about this as I get along.
The visit broadened my ideas about photography, lifted my confidence, and widened my idea of a good photo. I’ll talk more about that as I go on. You can only make art for yourself, not for what other people tell you to make.
Today, I’m absorbed in trying to get my computer and flower work syncing. It’s a bit messed up and is taking me hours. Bear with me; I’m finding some ways to get around it while Apple is working with me to repair it.
These photos will give you an idea of what I saw at the museum.
Please bear with me; the next few days will be a little chaotic here, and I put my creative art structure back together.
Maria soaks up the air in museums; seeing how much she loves to look at art is touching. Like O’Keeffe, she is an artist every minute. She has introduced me to the world of museums.
Skulls don’t represent death to O’Keeffe; they speak to her about life.
My America: I loved this artist’s interpretation of what America and “we the people” mean.
Maria always gets close.
A flower painting from O’Keeffe.
Her work got me spinning about what a landscape is. I love landscapes but am just beginning to realize how to photograph them.
This oddly striking statue is in front of the Museum of Fine Arts. I couldn’t stop looking at it. The museum show has my head spinning. I loved the 30-minute video of O’Keeffe explaining her work.
“I kept waiting for someone to teach me about landscapes,” she said. “I finally realized I had to teach myself.” Amen to that.
(I always take the monochrome to museums.)
We saw an O’Keefe exhibit “My New Yorks” at the Art Institute in Chicago. She used her photography to guide her paintings. Interesting how much she practiced with design and sketches. What an incredible artist, yet her early fame was largely advanced by Stieglitz as women artists were not widely appreciated. Thanks for your nice photos.
Thanks. I have more to come; thanks for your message. She is a fantastic artist, and it was a great joy just to see her work up close again. (I did visit her house in N.M.) She had to escape Steiglitz, although she loved him; he was taking her over.
If you and Maria go back to New Mexico you can arrange a tour of her home in Abiquiu. It is much as she left it. Her spices are in the kitchen, her shoes are in the closet. The gardens have been restored . She had a list of phone numbers in her studio and one of the numbers is for Ansel Adams. I think Maria would love it .
We saw her home in Abiquiu. It’s the first place we went to in New Mexico. THe watering of her garden is streamed every morning online. It’s an amazing place, for sure; thanks for the message. We wrote about it and posted a bunch of photos.