6 Things I Learned from the Life of Georgia O’Keefe: A Visit to Ghost Ranch
I returned from Ghost Ranch full of inspirations! If you’d like to tour my sketchbook (8 min!) that is here.
A few Things I learned from Spending Time with Georgia O’Keeffe: I went on a fabulous art + yoga retreat at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico that focused on her life.(to go on one like it join Mary’s list )
1. Be Afraid and Do it Anyway. Georgia said that she was always scared but she kept creating art even after macular degeneration stole her eyesight. (she began making sculpture in her 90’s with help!) Her relentless commitment to CREATE is v. inspiring to me.
2. Take Time to Look. This is a famous quote from her that I have on a bracelet that was gifted to me. She spent hours walking the gravel roads in her beautiful Ghost Ranch. Studying the cliffs, the ravens and her beloved mountain Pedernal .
Here’s a collage I created to celebrate this sort of presence. The original already sold but you can get cards + prints here.
3. Certain Places on the Earth Call to You…Go There. If you go there, important things can happen. For Georgia it was New Mexico. She first saw the state from a train with her sister in 1918 and never forgot it. She finally got back there in 1930 and eventually planted herself there. It was where her whole life BLOOMED.
4. It is Powerful to Narrow Your Focus. Get CLOSE UP. She did a lot of her paintings like a photographer- she zoomed in on flower petals, mountains and skulls. There is great power in eliminating the noise and getting very close to a subject.
5. BE unapologetically YOU. She wore black flat mannish shoes and painted her whole bedroom black when neither of those things was cool OR acceptable. She’s Georgia Fucking O’Keeffe and she doesn’t care what you think. (although she was human, and early in her career she thought a LOT about what “important people” thought of her work!)
6. Consider Making a Sex Tape Or the Equivalent? This one is tongue in cheek! Her lover, photographer Alfred Steiglitz, took nude photos of Georgia and shared them in public, this made her instaFAMOUS. Her boyfriend also turned out to be an excellent art dealer and helped her get fabulous prices for her work. These details reminded me that some people’s work becomes famous because of certain circumstances. If you want to get attention in the art world, its good to STAND OUT. Get Naked. Metaphorically or ACTUALLY:).
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