Flower Power

Little did I know that being a chaperone on David Dean's field trip to the Phillips Collection would be so inspiring. Georgia O'Keefe was the artist they were there to visit. What's the big deal about all the flower paintings? Ms. O'Keefe became a giant of twentieth-century modern art and the first American woman painter to gain unanimous respect from both critics and the public. While there's the thought that the flowers symbolize a woman's bits and pieces, it was revealing to learn that she was a groundbreaking artist in the early 1900's because she cropped her subject matter to make abstract art.


Her hubby was a photographer and the technique of cropping his pictures most likely gave her the idea to do the same with her paintings. The docent had the kids look through a piece of paper with a pin hole and try their hand at sketching what they saw. <<<<




I went back with Gigi and her interpretations were fab - a pop sickle (see painting at left), a crab, clouds. Here's to a woman who worked her skirt in a time when women were not encouraged to do very much of anything. She lived until she was 98 and completed more than 800 oil paintings. She said, "You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare."

Video on Georgia O'Keefe to get a glimpse of the real woman...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmCjVoFf-cY&feature=channel