Georgia Totto O'Keeffe

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was born in a farmhouse on a large dairy farm outside of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin on November 15, 1887.

When Georgia was in the eighth grade she asked a daughter of a farm employee what she was going to do when she grew up. The girl said she didn't know. Georgia replied very definitely... "...I am going to be an artist!"--"I don't really know where I got my artist idea...I only know that by that time it was definitely settled in my mind."

In 1902 her parents moved to Virginia. By the age of 16 Georgia had 5 years of private art lessons at various schools in Wisconsin and Virginia. One particular teacher, Elizabeth Willis encouraged her to work at her own pace and afforded her opportunities that the other students felt unfair. At times she would work intensely, and at other times she would not work for days. When it was brought to the attention of the principal, she would reply..."When the spirit moves Georgia, she can do more in a day than you can do in a week"

After receiving her diploma in 1905 she for left Chicago to live with an aunt and attend the art Institute of Chicago. She did not return to the Institute the following year after a bout with Typhoid Fever. Instead, in 1907 she enrolled at the Art Student League in New York City.

Discouraged with her work, she did not return to the League in the fall of 1908, but moved to Chicago and found work as a commercial artist. During this period

Georgia did not pick up a brush, and said that the smell of turpentine made her sick.

She moved back to her family in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1909 and later enrolled at a nearby college. In 1912 a friend in Texas wrote that a teaching position was open in Amarillo, Texas for a "drawing supervisor". Georgia applied for the position and was hired for the fall semester. She would remain there till 1914.

Virginia.

After resigning her job in Amarillo, Georgia moved to New York City to attend Columbia Teachers College until accepting a teaching position at Columbia College in South Carolina. Having a light schedule, she felt it would be an ideal position that would give her time to paint.

Early in 1916, Anita Pollitzer took some of Georgia's drawings to Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallery. In April Stieglitz exhibited 10 of her drawings. She had not been consulted before the exhibit and only learned about it through an acquaintance. She confronted Stieglitz for the first time over the drawings...later agreeing to let them hang.

Needing a job, and missing the wide, flat spaces of northern Texas, Georgia accepted a teaching job at West Texas State Normal College in the fall of 1916.

She would often make trips to the nearby Palo Duro Canyon, hiking down the steep slopes to observe the sandstone formations with white gypsum, and orange mudstone above the rich green canyon floor. At least 50 watercolors were painted during the time spent in Canyon, Texas.

Georgia's first solo show opened at 291 in April 1917. Most of the exhibit was the watercolors she painted from Texas.

During the winter Georgia became ill with the flu that was sweeping the country. She took a leave of absence from the teaching job and later resigned.

She was encouraged by Stieglitz to return to New York. She boarded a train in June of 1918 to return to New York and Stieglitz...and to a new life that would make her into one of the important artist of the century.

Information was taken from the following Internet site: http://www.ionet.net/~jellenc/okeeffe1.html