Alive.

A new documentary on Geogia O'Keeffe has been released ...

... the forces that keep us alive.

Pleasant.

The dirt resists you.  It is very hard to make the earth your own.  I’ve done much less to try to make it mine.  All my association with it is a kind of freedom.  Yet it’s hard to live at the ranch.  When I first came here I had to go 70 miles on a dirt road for supplies.  Nobody would go by in two weeks.  I thought the ranch would be good for me because nothing can grow here and I wouldn’t be able to use up my time gardening.  But I got tired of canned vegetables so now I grow everything I need for the year at Abiquiu.  I like to get up when the dawn comes.  The dogs start talking to me and I like to make a fire and maybe some tea and then sit in bed and watch the sun come up.  The morning is the best time, there are no people around.  My pleasant disposition likes the world with nobody in it.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Beyond.

O'Keeffe, Birch and Pine Tree No.1, 1925

I feel that a real living form is the result of the individual’s effort to create the living thing out of the adventure of his spirit into the unknown—where it has experienced something—felt something—it has not understood—and from that experience comes the desire to make the unknown—known. By unknown—I mean the thing that means so much to the person that wants to put it down—clarify something he feels but does not clearly understand—sometimes he partially knows why—sometimes he doesn’t—sometimes it is all working in the dark—but a working that must be done—Making the unknown known—in terms of one’s medium is all-absorbing—if you stop to think of the form—as form you are lost—The artist’s form must be inevitable—You mustn’t even think you won’t succeed—Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant—there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you—catching crystallizing your simpler clearer version of life—only to see it turn stale compared to what you vaguely feel ahead—that you must always keep working to grasp—the form must take care of itself if you can keep your vision clear.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Live.

Someone else's vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it because in the end it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened more to myself.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Outstretched.

POEM 89

South porch of Ghost Ranch house
Allen Ginsberg sits with O'Keeffe
shows her how he meditates,
crossed legs, straightened back, closed eyes--
breathe slowly, other instructions
but she doesn't mimic him.
He asked, "What do you believe?"
She outstretched her arm
palm up in a semi-circle
in front of her toward Pedernal,
"It's hard to say."
Mountain to the south
fragrant sage, clouds, blue sky
rocks she had gathered
beauty around her everywhere.
Later driving Allen & Peter to Santa Fe.
Allen called her a witch.
I nearly drove
off a curve in the road.
Said he was surprised
how little money she had.
I explained simple
surroundings did not
show her wealth.
No need.

C.S. Merrill

Happy Birthday, Georgia O'Keeffe

What I have been able to put into form seems infinitesimal compared with the variety of experience. It has to become a part of one's world, a part of what one has to speak with -- one paints it slowly. To formulate the new experience into something takes time. Maybe the new place enlarges one's world a little. Maybe one takes one's own world along and cannot see anything else.

I can't understand people who want something badly but don't grab for it. I grabbed.

Georgia O'Keeffe, born on this day in 1887

O'Keeffe, Ladder To The Moon, 1958

Interest.

I think it’s so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary — you’re happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Poppies.

O'Keeffe, Poppies, 1950

Freedom.

The dirt resists you.  It is very hard to make the earth your own.  I’ve done much less to try to make it mine.  All my association with it is a kind of freedom.  Yet it’s hard to live at the ranch.  When I first came here I had to go 70 miles on a dirt road for supplies.  Nobody would go by in two weeks.  I thought the ranch would be good for me because nothing can grow here and I wouldn’t be able to use up my time gardening.  But I got tired of canned vegetables so now I grow everything I need for the year at Abiquiu.  I like to get up when the dawn comes.  The dogs start talking to me and I like to make a fire and maybe some tea and then sit in bed and watch the sun come up.  The morning is the best time, there are no people around.  My pleasant disposition likes the world with nobody in it.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Interest.

Interest, not happiness, is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Happy Birthday, O'Keeffe

O'Keeffe, Pattern of Leaves, 1923

I think it's so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary – you're happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.

Georgia O'Keeffe, born on this day in 1887

Beyond.

O'Keeffe, Poppy, 1928

I feel that a real living form is the result of the individual’s effort to create the living thing out of the adventure of his spirit into the unknown—where it has experienced something—felt something—it has not understood—and from that experience comes the desire to make the unknown—known. By unknown—I mean the thing that means so much to the person that wants to put it down—clarify something he feels but does not clearly understand—sometimes he partially knows why—sometimes he doesn’t—sometimes it is all working in the dark—but a working that must be done—Making the unknown—known—in terms of one’s medium is all-absorbing—if you stop to think of the form—as form you are lost—The artist’s form must be inevitable—You mustn’t even think you won’t succeed—Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant—there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you—catching crystallizing your simpler clearer version of life—only to see it turn stale compared to what you vaguely feel ahead—that you must always keep working to grasp—the form must take care of its self if you can keep your vision clear.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Beyond.

O'Keeffe, Tent Door at Night, 1916

I feel that a real living form is the result of the individual’s effort to create the living thing out of the adventure of his spirit into the unknown—where it has experienced something—felt something—it has not understood—and from that experience comes the desire to make the unknown—known. By unknown—I mean the thing that means so much to the person that wants to put it down—clarify something he feels but does not clearly understand—sometimes he partially knows why—sometimes he doesn’t—sometimes it is all working in the dark—but a working that must be done—Making the unknown—known—in terms of one’s medium is all-absorbing—if you stop to think of the form—as form you are lost—The artist’s form must be inevitable—You mustn’t even think you won’t succeed—Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant—there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you—catching crystallizing your simpler clearer version of life—only to see it turn stale compared to what you vaguely feel ahead—that you must always keep working to grasp—the form must take care of its self if you can keep your vision clear.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Still.

There is much life in me — when it was always checked in moving toward you — I realized it would die if it could not move toward something ... I chose coming away because here at least I feel good — and it makes me feel I am growing very tall and straight inside — and very still ...

Georgia O'Keeffe, from a letter to Alfred Stieglitz, July, 1929

Closely.

David Lee Roth on "banking ideas," focus, and contribution in the creative process ...

Georgia O'Keeffe on looking closely at, what Jim Harrison calls, the "small gods" ...

A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower — the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower — lean forward to smell it — maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking — or give it to someone to please them. Still — in a way — 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. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.

So I said to myself — I’ll paint what I see — what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it — I will make even busy New-Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.

A journal.  There is no more important tool to carry everywhere you go.

Uncertain.

Stevenson, Georgia O’Keeffe, Dungeon Canyon, 1961

The wind is careless — uncertain — I like the wind — it seems more like me than anything else — I like the way it blows things around roughly — even meanly — then the next minute seems to love everything.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Clear.

O'Keeffe, An Orchid, 1941

I feel that a real living form is the result of the individual’s effort to create the living thing out of the adventure of his spirit into the unknown—where it has experienced something—felt something—it has not understood—and from that experience comes the desire to make the unknown—known. By unknown—I mean the thing that means so much to the person that wants to put it down—clarify something he feels but does not clearly understand—sometimes he partially knows why—sometimes he doesn’t—sometimes it is all working in the dark—but a working that must be done—Making the unknown—known—in terms of one’s medium is all-absorbing—if you stop to think of the form—as form you are lost—The artist’s form must be inevitable—You mustn’t even think you won’t succeed—Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant—there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you—catching crystallizing your simpler clearer version of life—only to see it turn stale compared to what you vaguely feel ahead—that you must always keep working to grasp—the form must take care of its self if you can keep your vision clear.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Working.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Andy Warhol, and Juan Hamilton in discussion, Interview, 1983 ...

HAMILTON

Georgia, tell Andy about how you got your mountain. Remember when somebody was interviewing you, and you said, “That’s my mountain.” And they said, “What do you mean that’s your mountain?” You said, “God told me if I painted it enough he’d give it to me.” Isn’t that true?

O’KEEFFE

And I’m still working on it.

Beyond.

Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing--and keeping the unknown always beyond you.

Georgia O'Keefe

Natural.

I’m not a joiner and I’m not a precisionist or anything else.  I said to myself, "I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me—shapes and ideas near to me—so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down." I decided to start anew to strip away what I had been taught.

Georgia O'Keeffe