Red, White and Blue
I have always had admiration for Georgia O’Keefe. She was a uniquely American artist who painted our Southwest and who lived life on her own terms. She died in 1986, at age 98, but not before writing an autobiography, Georgia O’Keefe. She wrote the way she painted: straightforward, spare and to the point. In the following I think she really nails elitist thinking:
“When I arrived at Lake George I painted a horse’s skull — then another horse’s skull. After that came a cow’s skull on blue. In my Amarillo days cows had been such a part of the country I couldn’t think of it without them. As I was working I thought of the city men I had been seeing in the East. They talked so often about writing the Great American Novel — the Great American Play — the Great American Poetry. I am not sure they aspired to the Great American Painting. Cezanne was so much in the air that I think the Great American Painting didn’t even seem a possible dream. I knew the middle of the country — knew quite a bit of the South — I knew cattle country — and I knew that our country was lush and rich. I had driven across the country many times. I was quite excited over our country and I knew that at any time almost any one of those great minds would have been living Europe if it had been possible for them. They didn’t even want to live in New York — how was the Great American thing going to happen? So as I painted along on my cow’s skull on blue I thought to myself, “I’ll make it an American painting. They will not think it great with the red stripes down the sides — Red, White and Blue — but they will notice it.” -Georgia O'Keeffe |
Call it homage to O’Keefe if you like. For fun I painted a red, white and blue painting, too, but with my wife Patty as the focal point. What is it with the boxing gloves? We used to lead kickboxing classes at a health club.
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