Who and What Influenced Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keefe was a painter who was motivated by her talent, teachers, and friends.
There were multiple people and which lead Georgia O'Keefe to become an artist. Georgia O’Keefe became an artist mainly because she took art lessons at a young age and showed a lot of talent.Georgia grew up in the 1890’s and 1910’s on a farm in Wisconsin, where women were expected to decorate their own homes. Like her grandmother and mother, Georgia took art lessons as a child and was well educated. She had taken 5 years of private art by age 16. This was not all too common, for there were many who couldn’t afford private art lessons and a first class education.
There weren’t any heard of female artists at the time, but Georgia continued with her art and studies. One experience that Georgia had when she was 14 was while she was studying art at a school in Wisconsin, was a nun criticized her hands in her painting as “too small”. This simple criticism took a toll on Georgia and she never painted anything “too small” again. (Her flowers are mainly large and usually take up the entire canvas.)
Many people were involved with Georgia’s art schooling and career, but the most significant would most likely be Alfred Stieglitz. He was a photographer and exhibited Georgia’s charcoal artwork before he even met her. He is picturesd above with her. Although he was 23 years older then her, they ended up marrying in 1929 and lived together in New York and New Mexico. (Two places where much of Georgia’s inspiration originated.) Another person that Georgia was involved artistically with was Arthur Wesley Dow. His teachings at the University of Virginia summer classes had a huge impact on Georgia’s artistic thinking. Dow believed that art should express the artist's feelings unlike traditional realism. Dow's teachings caused a turning point in Georgia's career.
