30 Best Georgia O'Keeffe Quotes From The American Artist
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Georgia O'Keeffe is an acclaimed American artist known for her significant contributions to modern art, which heralded her the title 'Mother of American Modernism'.
She's best known for her paintings of flowers, New Mexico landscapes, and the skyscrapers present in New York. Her style of art mainly revolved around modernism, and sometimes dipped into Precisionism.
Georgia O'Keeffe singularly attained the record for the highest auction bid for a female artist, when 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No' was sold for $44.4 million. The prices of most of her paintings range in the millions.
Some of her best paintings are of the New York skyscrapers, which were created in the late 1920's when she was living in New York with her husband.
To create one painting, an artist doesn't solely need talent, skill, and determination, but also inspiration.
New Mexico was a big source of inspiration for O'Keeffe, as she made many trips to the city to find new artistic techniques to experiment with. A couple of years after her husband passed away, she moved permanently to New Mexico.
One of the ways an artist can attain inspiration is by changing their environment and the surroundings that they're used to in every day life. This will give one a feel of newness and prompt new ideas to be born.
We have an amazing list of quotes by the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, which will hopefully allow you to get a glimpse into her life.
If you liked these quotes, you may head on over to painting quotes and Frida Kahlo quotes.
Famous Georgia O'Keeffe Quotes
Here are some great famous artist quotes by the great Georgia O'Keeffe.
1. "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
2. "The days you work are the best days."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
3. "It's not enough to be nice in life. You've got to have nerve."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
4. "Someone else's vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it 'cause in the end it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
5. "It is only by selection, by elimination, and by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
6. "Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
7. "It seems I would rather feel starkly empty than let any thing be planted that cannot be tended to the fullest possibility of its growth."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
8. "I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
9. "I have lived on a razor's edge. So what if you fall off - I'd rather be doing something I really wanted to do. I'd walk it again."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
10. "It seems to me very important to the idea of true democracy – to my country – and to the world eventually – that all men and women stand equal under the sky."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
Funny Quotes From Georgia O'Keeffe
Here are some funny quotes from American painter Georgia O'Keeffe.
11. "I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
12. "My friend Doris Bry says now that I’ve ruined her spelling because I misspell with such confidence."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
13. "Marks on paper are free - free speech - press - pictures all go together I suppose."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
14. "I wish so much to go that I almost wish I had never been there."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
15. "It's my private mountain. It belongs to me. God told me if I painted that mountain enough, I could have it."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
Quotes About Art And Painting From Georgia O'Keeffe
If you're looking for art quotes, then you've hit the jackpot! Here are some quotes about art from Georgia O'Keeffe.
16. "To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
17. "I got half-a-dozen paintings from that shattered plate."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
18. "One can't paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
19. "Filling a space in a beautiful way - that is what art means to me."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
20. "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
21. "I have painted portraits that to me are almost photographic. I remember hesitating to show the paintings, they looked so real to me."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
22. "Artists and religionists are never far apart, they go to the sources of revelation for what they choose to experience and what they report is the degree of their experiences."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
23. "I had it in my head, well, I couldn’t have been 12, that I was going to be a painter."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
Flower Quotes By Georgia O'Keeffe
Flowers highlight the beauty that is present in the world. One way of maintaining that beauty is by immortalizing it through art. Georgia O'Keeffe used many flower motifs and designs in her work. Here are some flower quotes by the American artist!
24. "When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
25. "A flower is relatively small. Still in a way, nobody sees a flower, so I said to myself-I'll paint it big."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
26. "A flower touches everyone's heart."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
27. "I do know the flower is painted large to convey my experience with the flower - and what is my experience if it is not the color?"
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
28. "I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see—and I don't."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
29. "I hate flowers - I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
30. "Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not."
- Georgia O'Keeffe.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Geogia O'Keeffe quotes then why not take a look at Monet quotes, or [Picasso quotes]?
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English
With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature.
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