A True Inspiration

Blind Artist Vision: blog by Stella De Genova

I haven’t written in a while because we were getting ready for a trip.  Destination – New Mexico.  It’s not an exaggeration to say that the mountain drives are breathtaking and the sky and landscapes are better than you can ever imagine.

We were in Santa Fe.  We’ve been there previously, and we enjoy the laid-back environment with interesting shops, museums and almost daily performances on the plaza, which surrounds St. Francis Cathedral.  The entertainment is so diverse.  On any given day, you might catch Native American dancers and drummers, mariachis, rock, or blues.  You can always see people dancing, from small children to white haired seniors.  And we always find delicious food with a Mexican/Southwestern flair.  Even the mild dishes can’t hide the New Mexican pride of green and red hatch chile peppers.

On this trip, we went to Abiquiu, somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for years.  This is where artist Georgia O’Keeffe made her home in the second half of her life.  She took a trip to New Mexico in 1939, fell in love with the landscape, and moved into her home 10 years later.  Her husband, photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, died and after closing his estate in New York. Abiquiu became O'Keeffe's home in the winter and spring and Ghost Ranch was her summer home.

O’Keeffe has always been an inspiration to me.  She became one of the first and most important American women artists to be recognized.  Her work shows that she was more interested in shape and color than in simply copying what she saw.  And, of course, being an artist myself who is legally blind, I always respected and understood the fact that when she started losing her eyesight, she didn’t stop creating – she just found new ways to do what was in her blood. 

“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I want to do.”

– Georgia O’Keeffe

I’ve seen her artwork and read more than one biography about her but going into her home was so overwhelming for me.  To be able to see where she worked, ate, slept, entertained friends and fellow artists, and was just as content to be alone - gave us a personal glimpse into the complicated yet simple person that she was.

“I hate flowers.  I paint them because they are cheaper than models and they don’t move”

– Georgia O’Keeffe

I learned new things about O’Keefe that I found so touching. 

She fell in love with a door off of the courtyard, which is what inspired her to buy the adobe, convinced that the house was built around that door. 

Someone asked if her friend, the famous architect and furniture designer Frank Lloyd Wright, designed her dining table, but she let them know she designed it herself. 

“There are two things you cannot do if you want to be an artist: cook and garden.”

– Georgia O’Keeffe

She had the same cook and gardener for decades.  She only cooked occasionally but always planned her day’s meals.  She had a huge pantry right next to the kitchen, where seasonal canning was done with the harvest from her apricot grove and immense vegetable gardens. 

She lived during the time of testing the atomic bomb in nearby Los Alamos and had an underground bunker installed. 

She loved listening to classical music (she played violin) and had a stereo system set up, which no one was allowed to touch but her. 

Her studio was modified as her vision was changing and next to the phone in the studio, we were able to see the extra large print in her address book so she could make calls herself, including her good friend Ansel (Adams).

Georgia O’Keeffe was amazingly independent and outspoken for the era she lived in and was groundbreaking for women artists.  From her beginning roots in rural Wisconsin to West Virginia, to  Texas, to New York City and then New Mexico, her life and work have always inspired me and I will always feel gratitude for getting to step into her personal space that she loved so much. 

Georgia O’Keeffe was amazingly independent and outspoken for the era she lived in and was groundbreaking for women artists.  Some may describe Georgia O’Keeffe as quirky or brash or even aloof, but I see her as a creative and brave woman who made her personal dreams a reality, and in doing so, opened doors for other women artists in America.

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