My Favorite Artist

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was born in a farmhouse on a dairy farm outside of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin on November 15, 1887. By the age of 16 Georgia had 5 years of private art lessons at various schools in Wisconsin and Virginia. Ateacher once said of Georgia; "When the spirit moves Georgia, she can do more in a day than you can do in a week" After receiving her diploma in 1905 she for left Chicago to attend the Art Institute of Chicago. O'Keeffe was hard to please and would continue to bounce from school to school, job to job, and place to place. She was encouraged by Stieglitz to return to New York. By this time he had fallen in love with Georgia and wanted to pursue a relationship. He being in an unhappy marriage, had moved out from the family home and into his studio. She boarded a train in June of 1918 to return to New York and Stieglitz...and to a new life that would make her into one of the most important artist of the century. Alfred's wife divorced him in September 1924 and he began to press Georgia into marriage. She was reluctant to do so since they had lived together since 1918 and had survived the scandal, seeing no reason to marry now. She finally relented and married late in December. By 1928 Georgia began to feel the need to travel and find other sources for painting. The demands of an annual show needed new material. Friends returning from the West with stories stimulated Georgia's desire to see and explore new places. Alfred had no desire to leave New York and Lake George...he hated change of any type. In May of 1929, Georgia would set out by train with her friend Beck Strand to Taos, New Mexico...a trip that would forever change her life. Georgia found the thin, dry air enabled her to see farther...and at times could see several approaching thunderstorms in the distance at once. She affectionately referred to the land of northern New Mexico as "the faraway"...a place of stark beauty and infinite space. Georgia would return to "her land" each summer until Stieglitz's death in 1946, when she would move permanently to her home in New Mexico. ---ellensplace.net