Title: O’Keefe Magic
Material: oil on canvas
Size: 48×48
Year: 2014
I long ago came to the conclusion that even if I could put down accurately the thing I saw and enjoyed, it would not give the observer the kind of feeling it gave me. I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking for – not copy it. – Georgia O’Keefe
More and more I believe less is more less and less. I expected the New Mexico desert to be a drab, barren moonscape, but I found it to be a place of wonder, where beauty tracks down the artist rather than the other way around. Nothing is lacking in the desert. There is as much or more to experience in an acre of Mojave as there is in an acre of Manhattan, and you can quote me, boys! Georgia O’Keefe didn’t have to wait long or go far for her inspiration in her adopted desert.
The skull is a little bit more than this artist’s getting silly with one of Georgia’s recurring motifs. The antlers penetrating her pelvis is also a male’s response to what are suspected as being other, suggestive themes in her own work. Freud would have been proud of me. Or jealous. Or conflicted.
Start with what you know. Create convergences. Don’t wait for them. Near-convergences are the next best thing. Any questions? Any answers? Just give me a call – I’m in the phone book.