Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings have always seemed womanly to me. The bright colors and flowers didn’t really appeal to me as a kid/. Even the skulls she sometimes drew had a female appeal to them. All this I have learned had made Georgia one of, if not the biggest feminist painter of her time. Capturing peoples perspectives around the world (men and woman alike), and winning herself the Presidential medal of freedom.

Looking at a painting by Georgia gives a feeling this is hard to explain. The fluidity of her painting makes everything on the canvas feel alive, and that’s they way she wants it! Comparing a painting of a naked woman and a tree will show many similarities. She is practicing her feminism by uncovering the female in everything. There is much controversy over some of her paintings, most notably some flowers, which look like woman’s private parts. Though O’Keefe denies that she intended them to look like that, it would not be surprising considering her feminist ways. Open sexuality is of course a main section of feminism since woman starting burning their bras.

An occurrence that comes up in many of her paintings is skulls. Her fixation on them can be described as an artist’s love of the intecrasy of the formation/derogation of bones. After a look through feminist history though, there seems to be quite a bit about skulls. Scientifically male skulls are bigger than females, which is one of the reasons why males though they were smarter for many thousands of years. Georgia’s fixation on skulls could be seems as a revolt of the theory, and promotion of female intelligence.