Friday, November 9, 2007

Georgia O'Keeffe and me


In 1949, at the age of 62, Georgia O’Keeffe moved to New Mexico. She had visited the state numerous times in the years prior to that permanent move.

In 2008, at the age of 62, if everything goes according to schedule, I will move to New Mexico. I have visited the state numerous times prior to this permanent move.

Because of the above coincidences, I have been feeling especially close to Georgia O’Keeffe lately…and finding that I have a curiosity about her.

Did she long to live in New Mexico for years before she moved there at the age of 62?

Did she feel a spiritual connection to the land, the vistas, the sky, the light in NM?


Did the warm sun and the low humidity give comfort to her bones as she aged?

I am sure I know the answer to this one: Did she sit for hours and hours just looking at the breathtaking scenery of Abiquiu around her….feeling a small part of it all?

Up until she was 62, she could be called a worldly person, a renowned painter of abstract art, living in New York City and Chicago. What touched her about the northern New Mexico atmosphere and surroundings to leave the big cities behind to live the simple isolated life she lived for her remaining 37 years?



I am interested in her art and her talent, I love her paintings of huge flowers, and her impressionist landscapes of Abiquiu. I want to buy some prints of her paintings for my new house in New Mexico.



But mostly, I am intrigued by Georgia O’Keeffe’s interesting life. I have become interested in her personally: her love for New Mexico and her life as an aging woman spending her days in the place she loved.

One of the things I will do is look for some books that will tell me more about her. I want to get to know her.

1 comment:

Buck said...

Georgia O'Keeffe's place was closed the one time I up was in Abiquiu. Bad timing on my part. But there's a lovely old adobe church there that's more than worth the trip, so all was not lost! (Not to mention the land...of course!)