"Take time to look."
Georgia O'Keeffe loved Northern New Mexico. This is an undisputed fact. She adored it so deeply that she couldn’t help but show her appreciation in every aspect of her life… from painting to cooking to architecture. She changed entire sections of her homes in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, just to have the best views out of her windows. And then, took her own paintings off the walls in those rooms because they simply couldn’t compete. She thought her own work was a distraction from what the land itself could offer as true art.
It isn’t enough to read about Northern New Mexico. Not even through the gifted writing and adjectives of Miss O’Keeffe herself. You have to see it, breathe it, walk it… with your own eyes, soul and step. We can learn from her adventures here and we can certainly revel in her memories, put so elegantly on canvas for all to witness. But even she would want us to make our own experience and live our own life.
As she told her friend Maria Chabot… “You are much better off starting something of your own.” (from a letter postmarked New York, April 10, 1945)
“It seems to me that you are very fortunate – that you should be able to go on with the kind of life you think you like… it all seems pretty fine.” (from a letter postmarked New York, Around October 17, 1944)
We believe this is a lesson and we should all take this advice to heart. When you want to live like Georgia O’Keeffe, what that means is living your own way, as authentically as possible, to who you are at your core. Not who she was, not who anyone else was. For many of us, ourselves included, this is extremely difficult to do. We like to pretend to self-analyze, but more often than not, we don’t like what we find. And we usually don’t have the courage to change. To forge the path that only we can forge. To walk the road that we need to walk. Not the one society tells us is the one we should or want to travel. Georgia O’Keeffe didn’t walk someone else’s predetermined path. She moved heaven and earth, literally, to make her own road.
It wasn’t the fame or money that brought her here to New Mexico. Certainly those afforded her the luxury of two homes and a dozen or so staff members. But we believe she would have come here regardless. And her personal reward was a life, that she created, and lived to the fullest, for no one else but herself. A life with purpose. A life truly unique. A life of authentic memories. It was made for her, just like it was made for us.
So as O'Keeffe said, "Take time to look." And as she meant, take time to live. "It all seems pretty fine."
XOXO,
O'Keeffe Country
It isn’t enough to read about Northern New Mexico. Not even through the gifted writing and adjectives of Miss O’Keeffe herself. You have to see it, breathe it, walk it… with your own eyes, soul and step. We can learn from her adventures here and we can certainly revel in her memories, put so elegantly on canvas for all to witness. But even she would want us to make our own experience and live our own life.
As she told her friend Maria Chabot… “You are much better off starting something of your own.” (from a letter postmarked New York, April 10, 1945)
“It seems to me that you are very fortunate – that you should be able to go on with the kind of life you think you like… it all seems pretty fine.” (from a letter postmarked New York, Around October 17, 1944)
We believe this is a lesson and we should all take this advice to heart. When you want to live like Georgia O’Keeffe, what that means is living your own way, as authentically as possible, to who you are at your core. Not who she was, not who anyone else was. For many of us, ourselves included, this is extremely difficult to do. We like to pretend to self-analyze, but more often than not, we don’t like what we find. And we usually don’t have the courage to change. To forge the path that only we can forge. To walk the road that we need to walk. Not the one society tells us is the one we should or want to travel. Georgia O’Keeffe didn’t walk someone else’s predetermined path. She moved heaven and earth, literally, to make her own road.
It wasn’t the fame or money that brought her here to New Mexico. Certainly those afforded her the luxury of two homes and a dozen or so staff members. But we believe she would have come here regardless. And her personal reward was a life, that she created, and lived to the fullest, for no one else but herself. A life with purpose. A life truly unique. A life of authentic memories. It was made for her, just like it was made for us.
So as O'Keeffe said, "Take time to look." And as she meant, take time to live. "It all seems pretty fine."
XOXO,
O'Keeffe Country