I have a picture by O'Keeffe up on my wall in Cairo. It's a landscape of New Mexico. I love the way it reminds me of the open spaces of the West of the US - and the red canyons that come alive in the morning or evening light. These memories are certainly a wonderful and spiritually-sustaining contrast to the dust and noise that await me outside!
I love one story about O'Keeffe told by a biographer, T.T.Williams. He describes how, "in her search for the ideal color, light, stones, parched bones that contained more life in them than living animals, [she] transformed her forays into desert country into a communion with the perfection around her. Once, in a canyon bottom, she was so enthralled by the sight that she laid her head back Coyote-fashion and howled at the sky, terrifying her companions nearby who feared she was injured. "I can't help it — it's all so beautiful," was her response."
I would love right now to be standing in the middle of a canyon and howling up at the sky! What an incredible release....
(see http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/bio/okeeffe_g.htm)
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