O'Keeffe

Ranchos Church

6th Grade Lesson Plan

Presentation as though presenter is ghost of Georgia O'Keeffe.  Dress in black with a white pleated blouse, interact with class in 1st person.  Pass out "skull" candy suckers to remind them of "my" love for bones.  Find pics for bolded words in O'Keeffe book or other places and use as you present.

I was born in 1887 on a diary farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, just 20 years after the Civil War ended and Frank Lloyd Wright was born there.  I was the second of seven children and named after Grandpa George.  I loved to play with my dolls under the apple trees when I was a little girl.  My dad played fiddle and took me for long walks in our fields.  My mom read books to me each night about the Wild West.

By the time I was 10, I knew I wanted to be an artist.  I didn't like my teachers to correct my paintings.  I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say in any other way. things I had no words for.  In school, I was a bit of a rascal; my friends though I was fun.  Sometimes I drew cartoons of my teachers.  You should know that at that time in history, "ladies" weren't taken seriously as artist.  One of my male classmates once asked me to pose for him, saying, "It doesn't matter what you do, I'm going to be a great painter and you will probably end up teaching painting in some girls' school."  Had, I'd like to see him now!

When I was 18, I went to Chicago to study at the Art Institute.  I learned about oriental and abstract (ask what abstract means) design.  I also studied in New York City and won prizes for my paintings.

I taught school in West Texas and began to develop my own abstract style of landscape.  My classes were an adventure!  Once I put a live pony up on the table as a model for my students.  I loved Texas.

When I was 27, my style changed completely.  I had to ignore much of what I had been taught and destroyed all my old paintings.  I decided to paint only what pleased me.

In 1916 (29(, some of my drawings were shown to a man who would have a great influence on my life.  his name was Alfred Stieglitz, a famous art supporter and photographer.  He declared, "At last , a woman on paper!" and thought my work was very original and honest.  Without my permission he displayed my drawings at his New York art showroom.  I was furious!  But the show won me admiration and attention.

In 1917 (30), he gave me my own show and money that allowed me to paint full-time.  We wrote letters to each other and I sometimes visited New York to see him.  He was stubborn, impatient and courageous and fought hard to get his artists recognized (including Picasso, Cezanne and me)

By 1924 (37), we were married.  he was 23 years older then I was, didn't like to travel, was often sickly.  He supported my work and took a series of beautiful photographs of me.  We lived in New York (Radiator Building-Stieglitz in Neon), it was cold and windy.  We spent summers at Lake George (My Shanty).  I liked it best when we  were alone but many people visited us there.

In 1929, (42), I went to New Mexico on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.  After I saw the landscape through the train window, 'from then on i was always on my way back'.  Every year I would return alone to New Mexico.  I lived in an old adobe house called Ghost Ranch or at my home in Abiquiu (Abbey-kew) and walked through the hills at all times of the day and night.  Red Hills.  It is "perfectly mad looking country, hills and cliffs and washes too crazy to imagine all thrown up into the air by God and let tumble down where they would.

I painted this subject (Ranchos Church) many times.  I had to paint it.  It was one of the most beautiful buildings left in the United States by the early Spaniards.  This is my favorite view.  The fragment accurately tells you how I feel about it.  I painted it during the first years in New Mexico (1930).  It's still standing (built 1734-1772)

* Subject
     Is it realistic or abstract.  "I take the subject into my imagination, alter and simplify its appearance to reveal the secret life of nature within it.  It takes time to see things - like to have a friend takes time."
     Does it look like a building or a sculpture?
     Does it even look like a church or is it a riddle, a puzzle?  (It is the Mission church of St. Francis of Assisi in Ranchos de Taos.)
     How would this painting feel to your touch?  Adobe Brick

*  Form
     What would it look like from another angle?  front and back view postcards (in packet)
     Am I a good draftsperson; or could you build a replica of this church based on my painting? 
     Are there enough details and correct perspective?
     Are the colors pure or subdued/muddy?
     "This painting is quiet but many of my flowers were described as blazing.  Red Canna One said, "the colors regain the fun they had forming the first rainbow"  I painted hundreds of flowers in every color, shape and form that went right to the edge of the canvas.  People asked me why I made them so large.  I asked them why they never wondered that I made the rivers so small.  I got those busy New Yorkers to look at flowers!"

*  Content
     How would it feel to be inside the church?  The walls are 6 feet thick.  The windows are small.
     How does it make you feel?

I was an excellent seamstress and sewed my own clothes.  Sewing gave me time to think and solve problems.  I usually work black and wore my hair tied back.  I did not like to be noticed, wanted to be taken seriously and enjoyed my privacy.

i collected bones - real cow skull on a small quilted flag to paint and loved their lively line, form, shape and texture.  I decided to make and American painting.  New Yorkers usually looked at European art for inspiration and ideas.  (A critic said there was too much French sauce in art).  I thought that the importance of the cow should be reflected.  Cow Skull:  Red, White and Blue.

In 1946, Alfred died.  I was 59 and missed him very much.  i decided to make New Mexico my home for the rest of my life.  I traveled around the world but stayed fascinated with the power of the mysterious desert.

When I was 84, I began to suffer from a form of blindness called macular degeneration.  I could not see objects that should be in the center of my field of vision.  I had to stop painting but could still touch the bones and smooth rocks throut my home.

When I died in 1986, I was 98 years old.  I and achieved many things.  I received the US Medal for Freedom, the Gold Medal of Painting, the National Medal of Arts, made a fortune, created over 900 works of art that hang in museums throughout the world.  There is a new museum full of my work in Santa Fe.  I am called the most famous woman artist America ever produced and the most successful woman artist of the 20th century.  That is my legacy, my children.