Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe (http://c250.columbia.edu/images/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/240x240_bio_okeefe.jpg)

Georgia O’Keeffe is a hero because she lived a free life and she created art work. She fought for artistic and personal freedom. Georgia died at the age of 98 in 1986.

In Georgia’s early life, she was born on a farm, in Wisconsin, 1887. Her mothers name was Ida Totto O’Keeffe, and her dad’s name was Frank O’Keeffe. Also in her early life she painted objects in her backyard and started of with simple shapes. Then when she got older, she explored the desert. She started to draw the skulls and the other stuff around her.

Most of Georgia’s problems were that she chose to go to parties and dancing instead of painting other people posing. She got the measles which affected her art work for a while because she could not see. She was going to return to the ART INSTITUTE but she got a case of typhoid fever. She got chest pains and blinding headaches. Her mother had died of TUBERCULOSIS which is a disease that affects the lungs. When she was younger and in art class she drew too small and her art teacher fixed that problem by helping her draw bigger. When she was in her early twenties she was discouraged to be an artist. When World War One came, Georgia was mad because she saw anti German messages on the Christmas cards that she was shopping for. Georgia’s husband Alfred collapsed and died at the age of eighty-two.

One of Georgia’s traits is that she is very courageous because she never gave up and she concentrated and tried hard. Another of Georgia’s character traits is that she was encouraging because she cheered on her students and tells them to never give up. She is always full of courage. The last one of her character was she was very unique because she drew stuff uncommon in art work, like when she had her blue period. Her blue period is when she painted things blue and only blue. The Southwest inspired many of her paintings like flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes. Some of Georgia’s paintings were the famous BLACK IRIS painted in 1926, the flower of CORN DARK that was painted in 1924, and the Building “THE RADIATOR BUILDING" that was painted in 1927. Georgia had a very well known famous paintings and it was a painting of a bull’s skull.

Some of Georgia’s contributions was that she obtained a job as an art teacher at one elementary school. Alfred Stieglitz put on a show of all her art work and more than one-thousand people came. In the city Georgia put up one of her paintings of a flower and when people looked at it they felt that the flowers were shrinking and Georgia was mad that they did not like the idea of her hanging up a painting of a flower shrinking. She was a painter of the desert.

Georgia had a lot of awards, recognitions and Honors. She was offered a job as an art teacher. Alfred Stieglitz put on a show of all of her art work and more than one thousand people came. When she was younger she was the best artist in art class. She got a job for drawing products like household cleaners for newspaper adds. People thought that she was a great artist and they wanted her art work but she refused and wanted to keep it. She became a member of the “ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS,” an honor society for artists. She got married to Alfred Stieglitz (he was the owner of the art museum called 291) and they lived a happily life. In 1997 she was awarded a “Medal of Freedom.

In conclusion Georgia had a great life. She started of as a student of art class and then she explored the desert. She drew objects in the desert. Georgia O’Keeffe was then a painter of the desert. Georgia O’Keeffe is a hero because when she was a art teacher she inspired her art students and many artists to come.