Georgia O Keeffe A Private Friendship Part I

The time is 1887. From any window in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Sun Prairie, Wisconsin birthplace home she only saw the Wisconsin prairie with its traces of roads veering around the flat marshlands and a vast sky that lifted her soul. At twelve years of age Georgia had a defining moment when she declared, “I want to be an artist.” Years later from her east-facing window in Canyon, Texas she observed the Texas Panhandle sky with its focus points on the plains and a great canyon of earth history colors streaking across the flat land. Georgia’s love of the vast, colorful prairie, plains and sky again gave definition to her life when she discovered Ghost Ranch north of Abiquiu, New Mexico. She fell prey to its charms which were not long removed from the echoes of the “Wild West.” These views of prairie, plains and sky became Georgia’s muses as she embarked on her step-by-step path with her role models—Alon Bement, Arthur Jerome Dow and Wassily Kandinsky. In this two-part biography of which this is Part I covering the period 1887–1945, Nancy Hopkins Reily “walks the Sun Prairie Land,” as if in Georgia’s day as a prologue to her family’s friendship with Georgia in the 1940s and 1950s. Reily chronicles Georgia’s defining days within the arenas of landscape, culture, people and the history surrounding each, a discourse level that Georgia would easily recognize.

The time is 1887. From any window in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Sun Prairie, Wisconsin birthplace home she only saw the Wisconsin prairie with its traces of roads veering around the flat marshlands and a vast sky that lifted her soul. At twelve years of age Georgia had a defining moment when she declared, “I want to be an artist.” Years later from her east-facing window in Canyon, Texas she observed the Texas Panhandle sky with its focus points on the plains and a great canyon of earth history colors streaking across the flat land. Georgia’s love of the vast, colorful prairie, plains and sky again gave definition to her life when she discovered Ghost Ranch north of Abiquiu, New Mexico. She fell prey to its charms which were not long removed from the echoes of the “Wild West.” These views of prairie, plains and sky became Georgia’s muses as she embarked on her step-by-step path with her role models—Alon Bement, Arthur Jerome Dow and Wassily Kandinsky. In this two-part biography of which this is Part I covering the period 1887–1945, Nancy Hopkins Reily “walks the Sun Prairie Land,” as if in Georgia’s day as a prologue to her family’s friendship with Georgia in the 1940s and 1950s. Reily chronicles Georgia’s defining days within the arenas of landscape, culture, people and the history surrounding each, a discourse level that Georgia would easily recognize.

The time is 1946. From Georgia O’Keeffe’s old hacienda sitting on a bluff in Abiquiu, New Mexico, she could see my aunt and uncle, Helen and Winfield Morten’s property across the Chama River. Georgia had begun the restoration of her property. The Mortens, in the final stages of purchasing land along the Chama River, had recently completed their restoration of another old hacienda they called Rancho de Abiquiu. As one of few Anglos in the Chama River valley, Georgia ventured over to Rancho de Abiquiu to introduce herself and a private friendship resulted with the Mortens and their family. In this close family circle, Georgia revealed herself and proved that beneath her bare face there was more to her than just an artist of legendary proportions. Nancy Hopkins Reily spent many of her childhood days walking the Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch land. She explored the canyons, the White Place, Echo Amphitheater, the mountains, and the Chama River by walking the trails worn by earlier moccasined feet. In a seamless, clear, and straightforward narrative of excerpts from their lives, Reily presents Georgia in a time-window of her age. The book features Reily’s youthful experiences, letters from Georgia, glimpses of the family’s memorabilia and photographic snapshots—all gracefully woven into the forces of the contemporaneous scene that shaped their friendship. In addition, there are insights into the land’s beauty, times, culture, history and the people who surrounded Georgia, as well as many minute details that should be remembered and which are often overlooked by others when they speak of Georgia O’Keeffe.

At 12 years of age, Georgia OKeeffe had a defining moment when she declared, "I want to be an artist." In this two-part biography, Reily chronicles Georgias defining days within the arenas of landscape, culture, people, and the history surrounding each.

A revised edition of this classic survey that presents a thorough overview of Georgia O’Keeffe’s life and work. Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) was a major figure in American art for seven decades. Throughout that long and prolific career she remained true to her unique artistic vision, creating a highly individual style that synthesized the formal language of modern European abstraction and the themes of traditional American pictorialism. The main subjects she returned to again and again were the flowers, animal bones, and landscapes around her studios in Lake George, New York, and New Mexico, to which her legacy is tied. This comprehensive and illuminating book by noted O’Keeffe scholar Lisa Mintz Messinger surveys her complete oeuvre—drawings, watercolors, and paintings from all periods—and explains her life in the context of her artistic output. Now revised with an updated bibliography, Georgia O’Keeffe features color reproductions of artworks throughout.

The timeline of American history has always swept through Santa Fe, New Mexico. Settled by ancient peoples, explored by conquistadors, conquered by the U.S. cavalry, Santa Fe owns a story that stretches from the talking drums of the Pueblos to the high math of complexity theory pioneered at the Santa Fe Institute. This fresh presentation, 400 years after the Spanish founded the town in 1610, presents the full arc of Santa Fe's story that sifts through its long, complex, thrilling history. From the moment of first contact between the explorers and the native peoples, Santa Fe became a crossroads, a place of accommodations and clashes. Faith defined, sustained, and liberated the people. All the while, scoundrels and abusers of power elbowed their way into civic life. And who should piece together that story of the country's oldest capital city? The Santa Fe New Mexican, the oldest newspaper in the American West, walking side by side with the people of Santa Fe for 160 years-a long life by the standards of publishing though merely a short span in Santa Fe's timeless drama. This book was compiled from a series that appeared monthly in "The Santa Fe New Mexican" in honor of the city's 400th anniversary commemoration in 2010. It illuminates Santa Fe's enduring promise to cling to roots that are bottomless and to leap into a future that is boundless. Over 400 pages, many illustrations, timelines, index, and detailed bibliographies. Included is a Study Guide for teachers, students, and anyone interested in Santa Fe and the American Southwest.

How can shadows determine the date and time of a painting by Johannes Vermeer? How did the Moon and tides cause the loss of King John’s crown jewels? In his newest book, Professor Olson, author of Celestial Sleuth and Further Adventures of the Celestial Sleuth, explores how astronomical clues can uncover fascinating new details about art, history, and literature. He begins with an accessible introduction to amateur “celestial sleuthing,” showing how to use your astronomical knowledge, software, archives, vintage maps, historical letters and diaries, military records, and other resources to investigate the past. Follow along as Professor Olson then explores twenty real-world cases where astronomy has helped answer unresolved questions or correct longstanding interpretations about an event. Examples involve artists such as Vermeer, Monet, and O’Keeffe; the historical exploits of Alexander the Great, the desert travels of the Death Valley ’49ers, and a meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Marrakech; and literary works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Longfellow. Packed with dozens of full-color illustrations, this book will enrich your knowledge of the past and equip you with all the tools you’ll need to become a celestial sleuth yourself. “Many people have a passion for art, or world history, or great literature, or even astronomy — but seldom in all these things at once. This remarkable book by Donald Olson of Texas State University will put you in touch with such seemingly unrelated endeavors. It will open your eyes and broaden your mind as little else could.” Roger W. Sinnott, Sky & Telescope

Nancy Hopkins Reily thought she knew everything she needed to know when she published I Am At An Age in 1990 at age fifty. She says, “I had compiled my life’s experiences with metaphors using the mountains as background. I approached my experiences as universal experiences that everyone recognized as their life. Six months after the book was published I realized I had more to learn: in-laws, sandwich generation, writing, over thirty-four years of journaling with selective excerpts, sixty-four lines of genealogy, laurels, my aging, and grandchildren. I knew I would have to write a sequel.” And here it is, twenty-two years later. She has eliminated most of the metaphors. Some themes continue although homes, clothes and make-up have changed. But her persona has remained the same. Nancy says, “My ancestors gave me gifts. I read that my great-great grandmother (born 1812 in South Carolina) rode to Texas in a carriage with silver trimmings after her husband had died on their Jackson, Mississippi plantation. And I also found out, after reading my mother’s journals that she was voted unanimously the Queen of the May Pageant at Texas Christian University in 1928. Her journals of her European trip also provided insight into her relationship with my father. These readings took on a life of their own as I used my years of notes, teenage diaries, and journals to form this gift to my descendants in this book. I hope you enjoy it.”