Georgia O’Keeffe, American modernist painter is my first choice in my month long celebration of Women’s History Month through the lens of American woman artists. #5WomenArtists is a challenge by National Museum of Women Artists, “Can you name 5 Women Artists?” Go to their website to participate and bring awareness to the contributions by women in the arts! https://nmwa.org/
My entryway in this celebration of women artists is through one work of art. For Georgia O’Keeffe, I choose “The Lawrence Tree” from the permanent collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum. You can listen to my podcast episode (linked here https://www.spreaker.com/episode/15900273)for an audio experience of one of her earlier works that expresses her way of seeing the natural world, a Ponderosa pine tree at the ranch of her friend, writer D. H.Lawrence in Taos, New Mexico, through her modernist lens of organic shapes and forms, an extreme close up of her personal experience and relationship with nature. I think this painting is valuable to the viewer and experience with the work, because O’Keeffe offers a new perspective and way to engage with nature, that can shape your engagement with the natural world.
“The big pine tree in front of the house, standing still and unconcerned and alive…the overshadowing tree whose green top one never looks at…One goes out of the door and the tree-trunk is there, like a guardian angel. The tree-trunk, the long work table and the fence!” –D. H. Lawrence
