Sharing thoughts of a recent visit to Georgia O’Keeffe’s house in Abiquiu, New Mexico. She’s one of those artists who is so well-known, she’s almost ubiquitous, like Van Gogh or Picasso, and major museums invariably have her work. But, she was great, strong woman ahead of her time, trailblazing artist. It’s cool when you visit people’s homes and get the true sense of who they were – I have strong memories of visits to Sandburg’s place in NC, Frank Lloyd Wright’s digs (of course), Hemingway’s house in Key West.
Impressions from Georgia? Well, she had incredible views, an amazing garden, record players in every room, and loved to cook. The ladies on the tour loved this part, and don’t be angry at me, ladies, it’s true. There was lots of oohing and ahhing at her pantry and her icebox. There was a neighborhood cat who followed us into the garden and left a hairball on the descendants of one of Georgia’s plants.
I thought it was interesting how Georgia did countless paintings of one door in the courtyard, trying to always look at it differently, to get it just a little more “right.” She was always pushing forward, and at the end of her life, when macular degeneration took her eyesight (this happened to my mom), she did one last painting “Beyond” that was to me, unlike any of her other work (pictured here, from the O’Keeffe museum in Santa Fe). Then she switched to pottery. At the end of her life (nearing 100), she had a bell by her bed and an in-house caregiver, also like my parents, and there was something poignant about that, as well, and a reminder that we are all more connected than we think. But art does that too.
Doug Hoekstra 