Monday, October 1

for the freer ladies

He listens. And when I said once it would be my dream to have a stack of Georgia O'Keeffe books, that's exactly what I came home to after having to work on a Saturday feeling shriveled, weak, and frustrated from exhaustion.

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The next day I sat and layed on the front porch, reading from C.S. Merrill's Weekend with O'Keeffe, her diary from spending time at her Abiqui house. She says, "I do this recording of the meeting out of responsibility to women in the future who must know what a strong, great lady Miss O'Keeffe is...rather out of affection for the freer ladies of the future who may need a toughening influence from this great lady." Well, thank you C.S Merrill, for understanding we all need to know how and why. I'm going to learn a lot from them both. Already, I have an idea to replicate a wooden table she describes in detail, one that O'Keeffe designed herself and made in New York to haul to New Mexico. I will dry orange blossoms for tea and really look at things. I want to underline every sentence ( but I can't because these are all from the library, one day they will be mine, one day).

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If you wanted to see some of the most beautiful photographs of a woman in solitude, her dogs and her desert, look up John Loengard's book. This will keep me going all fall.

I still can not believe I was in the same place, if only for a week, a very long deep week, with the same place she grew her vegetables, sat up on the roof, painted for 12 hour days, took 2 mile walks everyday, rearranged rocks and hardly saw with her eyes but painted everything.

3 comments:

Jo said...

I just wanted to let you know that I love everything about this blog post. The books sound amazing.

Arlee Bird said...

I like what you have posted on your blog so far. Expressive words and a nice range of photography. Keep it up!

Lee
An A to Z Co-Host
Tossing It Out

mari said...

Thanks Jo, really glad you enjoyed it. Lee, thanks for reading, see you soon!