Photo by Alfred Stieglitz

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was the first American woman to really distinguish herself as a modern artist, paving the way for other women. My mother, who is a watercolorist, introduced me to O’Keefe’s work when I was a child. She particularly liked O’Keefe’s large paintings of flowers. I love them too. O’Keeffe, who married photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz, had an interesting and unusual life and a long career. You can read more about her and see her work at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum site HERE.  She truly used painting as a form of expression, and that is reflected in her quotes below.

Georgia O’Keeffe Quotes 

• 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 often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.
• Marks on paper are free – free speech – press – pictures all go together I suppose.
• Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time.
• I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.
• I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.
• One cannot be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work.