Ode to O'Keeffe

Photograph by Eddie DeLuca, 2005

I dug out some photos when I was getting ready for the 2005 Nationals as a treat for you.  I have literally thousands of unpublished photos over the years of my evolution as an Amazon.  You see, I am essentially the "Georgia O'Keeffe" of the Amazon fetish world. If you know anything about her, you will know what I mean.  Like Georgia, I fell in love with the New Mexico desert, 24 years ago, and have never left but for temporary stints, and my heart belongs here.  This is my home.  I have traveled and lived in many places around the globe, and there is nothing more beautiful than the New Mexico sunsets on the desert landscape.  Which is one reason why my bronzed, polished physique looks so stunning against the gypsum outcropping of these rocks.  It just feels so natural, so real, and so good.

Georgia was a feminist, artist (not just a feminist artist) and independent soul.  She went against the grain, doing as she pleased all of her life until she died at a ripe age of 98.  Her watercolors were representational of womanhood.  She struck me as a woman ahead of her time in so many ways.  She was an old soul--a handsome woman, but not attractive by beauty standards of the times.  She developed her own sense of what beauty is, and embraced it, which I think, manifested through her work and being.  If you look at her body, it was tanned from the New Mexico sun, lean, lithe, and even modern looking--a great body even by today's standards.  Her only real exercise regimen was walking and sex.  What a great lifestyle!

Judy Chicago created a mixed media representation, The Dinner Party.  Chicago is an icon of feminist art, which represents 1,038 women in history—39 women are represented by place settings and another 999 names are inscribed in the Heritage Floor on which the table rests. This monumental work of art is comprised of a triangular table divided by three wings, each 48 feet long.  If you get a chance to visit NYC, it is housed at the Brooklyn Museum.  See:  http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/georgia_o_keeffe.php

Photograph by Alfred Stieglitz

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919 Palladium Print, Plate 172 by Alfred Stieglitz

Not only was Georgia a groundbreaking artist, she was a living, breathing work of art, in my estimation. There is a museum in Santa Fe dedicated to her life work.  Her homes, Ghost Ranch and her Abiquiu are just north of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  In summation, what greater words to live by:

"I don't see why we ever think of what others think of what we do--isn't it enough just to express yourself"--Georgia O'Keeffe

 

Pedernal Mountains at Georgia's Ghost Ranch Home