As I left Texas and entered the state of New Mexico, I suddenly turned right and headed nearly due north. Being this close to Santa Fe, New Mexico, I could not resist the proximity to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum.

The drive was wintery and beautiful.

Georgia O’Keeffe had a humble beginning. She was born in a farmhouse in Wisconsin in 1887. From 1905, when she began her studies at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago, until about 1920, she studied art or earned money as a commercial illustrator or a teacher to pay for further education. She began to develop her unique style beginning with watercolors from her studies at the University of Virginia and more dramatically in the charcoal drawings she produced in 1915 that led to total abstraction. Alfred Stieglitz, an art dealer and photographer, held an exhibit of her charcoal works in 1917 without her permission.

She moved to New York City in 1918 at Stieglitz request and began working seriously as an artist at age 31. Stieglitz made it so O’Keeffe could devote full-time to her art. They developed both a professional and a personal relationship that led to their marriage in 1924. She was 37. Stieglitz was 60. O’Keeffe created many forms of abstract art, including close-ups of flowers which many people interpreted as the depiction of women’s sexuality. O’Keeffe denied this but the idea was fueled by explicit and sensuous photographs of O’Keeffe Stieglitz had taken and exhibited.

They lived together until 1929 when O’Keeffe began to spend part of each year in the Southwest, which served as inspiration for paintings of New Mexico landscapes and images of animal skulls such as “Cow’s Skull: Red, White and Blue" (1931).

Alfred Stieglitz, who is considered the most important figure in the history of visual arts in America, organized several highly successful galleries and put on some huge exhibitions which promoted 7 major American painters including O’Keeffe. With his help and support, O’Keeffe developed an international reputation. Her paintings are at most of the major modern art museums in the world. To give you an idea of the scale of the respect for her paintings, in 2014 one of her paintings “Jimson Weed / White Flower No. 1” sold for $44,405,000.

After Stieglitz’s death in 1946 at the age of 82, O’Keeffe moved full time to New Mexico where she lived the next 40 years at her home and studio in Santa Fe, or at her Ghost Ranch summer home in Abiquiu about 50 miles north of Santa Fe.

The drive north to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was beautiful with the whiteness of the snow contrasting with the red earth and cliffs. 

Santa Fe has a distinctive architectural style all its own. No other city in the country has so many low-slung, earth-colored buildings made of adobe bricks, which consist of a mixture of sun-dried earth and straw. 

The museum was built in Pueblo style as is much of Santa Fe with a flat roof, beams showing and rich brown stucco which contrasted beautifully with the snow. The interior ceilings showed exposed beams. The galleries are open, well-lit with natural light and O’Keeffe’s paintings are beautifully displayed. With only a few visitors due to the weather and time of year (December), it was an ideal time to really observe and appreciate O’Keeffe’s paintings at a leisurely pace.

Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the greatest American painters of the 20th century. She was also honored and respected world-wide. Her style and subject matter influenced painters and artists around the world.

In 1949 O’Keeffe’s donated what she considered the first part of the “key set” of what she considered Stieglitz’s very best photographs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In 1980 she donated another 325 of his photographs. Again, to give you a better idea what we are talking about here, in 2006, one of his photographs sold for $1.47 million. At the same auction, another sold for $1.36 million.

Georgia O’Keeffe had a 70-year career. She was very prolific including painting, drawing, sculpture and photography to name only a few of her multi-faceted artistic expressions at a world class level. She lived to be 98.

The detour to see Geogia O’Keeffe’s art and museum was well worthwhile. Time to find a motel, get some dinner and get to bed so I can get an early start in the morning. I will head south, then due west for Phoenix and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West.

My solo 1964 journey is nearing the end. Pretty cool for a 20 year old on his own. It has given me deeper appreciation for what the Greatest Generation did for us – the teamwork, the self-less sacrifice, and the positive, expansive vision.

Our outstanding leaders like Admiral Nimitz who led us to victory in World War 2 and laid the groundwork for decades of prosperity.

When I get home, I will soon be off to Marine Corps bootcamp to do my duty to my country and to repay in some small way what my parent’s generation did for us.   

Again, I encourage you to take full advantage of our limited time special offer: buy 2 cases of JDD protein and receive 1 case of JDD protein for free.

Thank you for your business.

As always, I wish you and your family the very best of health.
Joe