Welcome to Stories from the O’Keeffe
“I wish you could see what I see out my window.”
These are strange times.
It seems fair to say that we are all viewing the world from a new perspective and what we see from our own window may be difficult to communicate in its complexity, with moments of fear, grief, and sadness intertwined with those of hope, love, and gratitude.
I’m fascinated by the way Georgia O’Keeffe sought out and embraced different perspectives by looking closer, taking time to look, and finding beauty in the unexpected. She engaged these different ways of seeing as catalysts for her creativity while honing a language to visually describe the ‘wideness and wonder of the world’ through her artwork.
A little over a month ago, just a few weeks into the Museum Galleries’ closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I received a photo from Martin Schultz, a curator at the National Museum of World Cultures in Sweden. The photo was a view from his window in Stockholm using a viewfinder postcard he collected while visiting the Seeing Beyond / Ver más allá exhibition at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in December.
The exhibition displays a handmade viewfinder owned, and possibly used, by Georgia O’Keeffe. A viewfinder provides a border that helps define the colors and contours of a composition. The postcards were provided for visiting guests to compose their own new perspectives and share with friends.
By Martin sharing what he could see out his window in Stockholm through the Museum’s postcard, I somehow looked out my own window in Santa Fe a bit more intentionally and felt we were connected in our simultaneously unique but shared experiences. As many of us around the globe have faced new realities during this health crisis, it is indeed a privilege to have the space for these socially distant reflections. It is my hope, however, that the O’Keeffe Museum can also offer you moments of connection, beauty, mindfulness, creativity, and intrigue.
In this spirit, we at the O’Keeffe Museum are excited to launch Stories from the O’Keeffe to share our passion for the work, ideas, and discoveries from across the organization. We’ll dive into the Museum’s collections, share snippets of correspondence, take walks along desert paths, cook like O’Keeffe, tag along with the Museum in the community, and visit artists in their studios, living out their own creative lives.
Please let us know what you’d like from us – we’re in this together!
Share your thoughts and ideas here:
Stories from the O’Keeffe Feedback and Idea Form
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Postscript
While you can’t visit the Seeing Beyond / Ver más allá exhibition in person right now, the viewfinder postcards are going to good use. The postcards will be included in a distribution of art kits to kids in Santa Fe who don’t have access to schooling due to lack of internet access. We’ll share a story about the art kit initiative next week!
Thank you and we’re looking forward to having you along on this journey!
