Why I Appreciate Georgia O'keefe

When first taking interest in art at a young age, naturally, I found painting to be the most appealing of artistic mediums. Eventually, as I got older, I discovered modern art and an appreciation for it. One of the artists that most struck me and remains one of my favorites is Georgia O'Keeffe.

A mid-westerner that relocated a couple times in her life, she eventually settled in the American south-west. She married a fellow artist and lived in New York for awhile in her early adult life. Her character was described as rather cold towards strangers and aloof in general. After her husband died, she permanently based herself in New Mexico, and much of her work is inspired by the landscape of that area. She lived well into her 90s.

Her most famous works are the abstract flower close-ups in watercolor that are several of the world's most famous paintings. What is striking about her work is the theme of ambiguity and the emphasis on lines and color rather than composition and subject matter. Her abstracts have a soft textural look and an atmosphere of simplicity. Personally, her paintings have given me an immediate feeling of sensual serenity. I remember watching a foreign news show where a panel were discussing her work, and the younger--and male--interviewee mentioned his indifference towards her art because of its overt femininity. I remember my reaction was one of dismay and increduility. First of all, these works are world-beloved not merely by a female population, and second they are deemed classics of the art world by experts who are not comprised of only men. What is non-gendered about O'Keeffe's work is her bold and original styling, which is a quality that is rare in both male and female artist.


To further analyze her work, I find these flower abstracts to be more substantially meaningful than mere canvas and other schemas of art. Each one is an entire novel of symbolic expression. Her intense microscopic view of one flower, where the lines and colors define the subject rather the space around the subject makes you see an entire new perspective of, not only flowers, but everything. She once said "When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else..." And that world is one of deep revelation, for in the fragment you see the whole. What I mean is that in the simple image of petal and stema of a flower, you not only recognize the whole flower but that all flowers can be seen like this. This idea stays with you, and can transform the way you view art. For me, this has transformed the way I view the world as well.