I have read with interest the many comments of the O'Keeffe notes, and concur as Susan T. suggests that an Artist has to have 500 pounds and someone else to do the washing up! I paint, but also keep a small farmlet with an ailing husband. dipping my toe into the commercial world of art and writing was short lived. But, my life now is my choice, in the past women were controlled by the men they married. Fortunately the modern woman can choose for herself. But again, success for your work is supported by other hands, even today there are many talented women out there who no-one has ever heard of. My friend Morgan Warren is a writer and artist who lives on one of the Gulf Islands off the coast of BC. She is successful but works very hard to put herself out there creating Art shows and publishing wonderful illustrated books on the environment and yearly calendars But it is all consuming.
We are luckier than past generations modern aids and electronic support make it easier for us to work and live another life, but it still boils down to having another pair of hands behind the scenes.
Liz, thanks for bringing those examples to the table, your own and that of your artist friend. I know this from my own life: I could not do what I do without Bill's constant support. He does a lot of what we need to do to live where/how we live. The books may have my name on them, but he's equally responsible for them--as you say, another pair of hands. That's the gift Maria gave Georgia.
"Different women at different times" Love that, Susan. A grace we should apply to ourselves as well. I love these books about women not seen but there and am looking forward to Maria's!
So good to hear from you, Jude. Too bad about the retreat--hope you are recuperating speedily. No, OOPS! I see from the Story Circle list just now that you are coming! I'm so glad you're feeling better, but don't overdo it, please! Wish I could be there, but it's just not in the cards for me this year.
Oh boy, this sounds fascinating! I can’t wait to read your book. I’m always interested in women who break with convention in order to be true to themselves. Also, I love to find out about women who’ve been overlooked in the past, whose own fascinating history has been discovered or finally revealed.
Both Maria and Georgia meet that description, Grace: unconventional women, meeting life on their own terms, true to themselves. I'll also add to your "love to find out about" list: I like books about women who are different from what we thought they were. Secret stories revealed, that is.
It's interesting how frequently you've chosen subjects whose lives are affected by non-monogamous behavior. I first encountered the term "polyamory" about 25 years ago. I wonder whether a greater acceptance of ethically practiced polyamory would change our perspective on relationships that are currently forced into secrecy and/or are condemned by our culture? I have sometimes wondered about certain public figures whose extramarital relationships have been exposed, and speculated about whether the marital partners might have made agreements privately. Certainly in the current era the press is unwilling to turn a blind eye on behavior that was tacitly ignored in, for instance, the Roosevelt era. There are pros and cons to both approaches.
It's the human condition, isn't it, Patricia? We're all polyamorous by our nature, across many familial and social contexts and the many years of our lifespan. We should celebrate this, not flagellate ourselves and (worse!) others. We love whom we love. We must also respect the bonds of trust that maintain our closest relationships. Mmm. . . pretty superficial. and high-falutin' (as my mother would say). 🤦♀️ But yes, this little series of four books does center around the different ways we love and support one another.
Now that I'm thinking about it, you explore this in the China Bayles books, most particularly in her father's story, as well. It does make for compelling human drama. I am pretty fortunate to have avoided the angst that infests so many people's lives. I'm starting to mentally wander into why I respond the way I do, and I think my mother's example as an accepting and inclusive person might have helped me onto this path. My father was more of a defensive, us vs. them sort of person, while she just kept widening the circle.... Theirs was not the most tranquil of relationships, but it did endure till death did them part.
Patricia, it's not a "wander" (IMO), it's very good to think, intentionally, about why we are (or aren't) tolerant, about where and why we set boundaries (what's "right," what's "wrong"). We're living in a time when some would narrow the circle of acceptance to include only people like themselves and insist on narrowing everybody's idea of what's "legal" and "moral" to match their own. Sounds like your parents may have (inadvertently?) shown you how that works. But we certainly are seeing that every day in the political world.
That is nice, isn't it? So good that they're beginning to recognize her, although it would be lovely to fully recognize her work on the Abiquiu house. Thanks for reminding me about her birthday. Some sources report that it's today: 9/19.
I can't wait to read this book. I have read all your books and I so appreciate what you have given to the world through your writing and sharing of yourself and your life.
Susan, this book sounds fascinating. I've read both the Hickok and Summersby books and loved them both. I appreciate your focus on the "support" woman for these famous people. I also am glad your provided the timeline of your writing process on this current book and how you were nudged more than once to keep going. I look forward to reading it. I'm curious about your title. Is this in reference to O'Keefe's need to always have someone nearby despite her reputation as a "hermit?"
Yes, this was a project that the Universe insisted on (or so it seemed to me). Re the title. In an early letter, Georgia writes that she is uncertain about Maria's liking her "as something always nearby." I was struck by "something" (inanimate--did Georgia really mean to refer to herself as as a "thing"?), and changed it to animate (someone). Maria assures her that yes, she will like that. And yes, in the novel, the phrase refers to Georgia's need to have someone always available to support her and her work. Ironic, when we consider the persona she created: the solitary, self-contained, self-reliant, hermit-like artist.
Thanks for that explanation, Susan. Yes, I like the irony that you emphasize with that title. O'Keefe is known for qualities that were not particularly accurate. Interesting and also a commentary on how she created a persona for herself, which speaks to her character.
I was fascinated to read your account of writing Someone Always Nearby. I read the Hickok book some years ago and I think it was one that got me into biography. For many years I thought they wre boring--but in the last ten years I can't get enough. Summersby has been on my list for a long time and now Rose Wilder who I knew nothing about (I actually haven't read the Little House books--I must be the only one this age who hasn't). I think your approach of writing about women less known yet integral to others who get all the credit is marvelous. What woman hasn't experienced a bit of this along the way?
I'm so interested in your process and how the synchronicity of the universe brought you back to this project. When I read the Lorena Hickok book I remember thinking that I didn't know at the end what exactly the relationship was with Eleanor. Now I know you did that on purpose and I applaud that. You are introducing me to women I wanted to know and didn't know I wanted to know. Many thanks. If you were to steer me to one O'Keefe biography which would you choose? So much more to learn.
Linda, good question: which O'Keeffe bio? My thought: it depends on your interest in her. If it's her art and her career as an artist, I'd choose Robinson. If you're interested in her personal life, especially her New Mexico life and her later years, I'd go for Hogrefe.
Kay Summersby's is such a fascinating story because she was an attractive woman doing a man's job for Ike as a driver/military aide. Her wartime contributions had to be squashed and minimized after the war because she was such a huge threat to Eisenhower's reputation. (I'm personally convinced that her editor rewrote sections of her second memoir after her death, to change the story.)
I have been interested in O’Keeffe for years but was not familiar w Maria Chabot until your references. I have 3 biographies of O’Keeffe (not that I’ve read them all) and discovered that one of them is the Hogrefe. It has a bookmark in it so apparently I started reading it and didn’t get far enough. I’m looking forward to your book coming out and will probably finish the Hogrefe bio while I wait.
Hogrefe is good because he established a personal relationship with Hamilton, while Georgia was still alive and before the difficult settlement of her estate. His understanding of O'Keeffe is closer to the real woman than to the artist, seems to me--although we do have to remember that she lived a very long life and was different women at different times.
I first learned of this relationship from a fellow playwright and friend, Carolyn Gage who wrote a play (Georgia and the Butch), which is an adaptation of the letters from 1941-1949, I look forward to reading your book about Maria Chabot!
Sandra, thanks for your mention of that play--it's been on my TBR list for a while. Your comment was the prompt I needed to download it this morning. Looking forward to reading it and to seeing how Gage chose and adapted material from the letters.
I read it yesterday and enjoyed it very much. CG did an excellent job pulling out and arranging the material--she created a plausible and revealing story arc that beautifully illuminates the Maria/Georgia story arc (IMO). We've just corresponded; I'm sending her a copy of Someone. And I'll be discussing the play itself in other posts. It is an excellent abridgement of those nearly-700 letters. Big thanks to you for making this connection!
I had never heard of Carolyn Gage, and after a bit of exploring it is clear that her work will resonate with me. Thank you for opening yet another literary avenue for me. Reading this blog is adding books to my TBR (love the shorthand!) list quite regularly.
If I can find your email, I would like to offer a comment or two that is not a spoiler for everyone.
I think your depiction of the characters of both Georgia and Maria were spot on, and that Barbara Buhler Lynes is disappointingly bigoted. O'Keeffe was a brilliant artist and an interesting person, but not a saint with a halo. Had Lynes lived with O'Keeffe or someone like her (as I have) she would be less indulgent of O'Keeffe's conspicuous faults. Maria had her own quieter brilliance--for a woman to design and build difficult buildings when women were not architects--this is an achievement that really should make her nationally famous, displaying a huge creative and organizational talent, as well as a gift for tact and diplomacy. Maria's personality reminds me of talented people I have known who have been abused in childhood, and made to feel "different." They are highly civilized and controlled, very sensitive and empathetic, and loss of control, or even just standing up for themselves, for them results in exaggerated remorse and apology. Maria Chabon was an engaging, endearing person, steady, loyal, and generous. I wonder what Lynes is like. A bit of a stick perhaps?
Mary, I'm here: susanalbert01@gmail.com. Or just reply to the Substack email you received this morning. I appreciate all you say here and join with you in your assessment of Maria's creative achievements: huge, by any measure (although not what she planned or perhaps wished). And loyalty was certainly a cornerstone of her personality: witness her relationship with Dorothy Stewart. (Those letters are even more lovely than her O'Keeffe letters.)
I think Lynes's view was colored by her long allegiance to and support of O'Keeffe's art and anxious to defend her against the romantic rumors about her relationship with Maria. If you have access to Jstor, you might glance at Linda Grasso's review of the letters, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25679657
I had a LOT of help, Sherry: my friend/research buddy Paula Yost and the archivists at the O'Keeffe Museum. Plus the enormous work put in by O'Keeffe's biographers. And more. Certainly not a one-woman project!
Sep 18, 2023·edited Sep 18, 2023Liked by Susan Wittig Albert
I look forward to reading your book, as someone who has loved going to museums to view O'Keefe's paintings since I was a teenager, thanks to my Mom, who helped develop my interest in her and many other artists. And thanks to my Dad who drove my Mom and me to Washington, D.C. one Thanksgiving weekend years ago to see an exhibition of hers there. Anyway, I look forward to the rest of your writing story!
Sep 18, 2023·edited Sep 18, 2023Liked by Susan Wittig Albert
I am grateful to my parents every day of my life. My Mom and I always wanted to go there when we went to Arizona, but our trips to the Southwest were cut short by the sudden death of my Dad. But, my older brother lives in California, so it wouldn't be too much to travel to New Mexico from his home, if I ever do visit him out there. I would LOVE to see this museum!
Thank you for sharing the back story of Someone Always Nearby! I've been excited about this project ever since you started talking about it, and I'm looking forward to reading more about Maria, who has gotten such a bad rap. And to understanding Georgia better. I grew up knowing her as an artist whose work explained (without words) why the West is home to me, and I've read the biographies, but I still felt like I knew the image she created and guarded better than the woman herself. Someone is going to add to my understanding of both women, and I look forward to that.
Georgia lived such a long life and was so many different women, at different times in different places with different people. I think the best we can do is (as you say) "add to" our understanding of her.
Sep 18, 2023·edited Sep 18, 2023Liked by Susan Wittig Albert
It's always interesting to me how the universe aligns things: while I certainly knew who O'Keefe was and could instantly recognize some of her art (the flowers!), I knew little about her as a woman and as an artist. Last month, I read Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women by Annabel Abbs, and Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the women the author discusses. Her primary focus is on the influence that walking in wild spaces had on creativity of several well-known female artists and writers. The book is welll-researched (though she did not cite Hogrefe's book) and is a blend of biography, memoir and travelogue.
One of the interesting assertions Abbs makes about O'Keeffe's life as an artist and married woman is how her aging husband's mistress "enabled O'Keefe to continue her lengthy, solitary trips to New Mexico knowing he was cared for." There are similar examples in the book of other creative women who relied on other women so that they had some version of freedom to live lives of creative pursuits.
I have pre-ordered Someone Always Nearby and look forward to reading the story.
Yes, the universe provides some interesting intersections, doesn't it? I haven't read Abbs book, but would have to agree about the importance to O'Keeffe of walking in wild places. I also think there's a great deal of irony in "enabled." Dorothy Norman both freed O'Keeffe to escape to NM and made it necessary for her to do that--Stieglitz's open relationship with Norman was a huge embarrassment to his wife. And while O'Keeffe went alone (that is, without Stieglitz), she wasn't solitary. She always had a support staff--in the 40s, managed by Maria. Thanks for the mention of Abbs!
One of my criticisms of Abbs book is that most of the creative women she discussed were mostly privileged and were able to pursue their lives as a result of family wealth, status and occasional companions.
That's so important, Sue! Georgia was supported by wealthy patrons who bought her art (encouraged to buy by her agent/husband). Contrast her sister Ida, also talented but unsupported and poor and had to abandon her art. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rivalry-between-georgia-okeeffe-and-her-sister-ida Remembering Virginia Woolf: to do her work, a woman artist must have 500 pounds and a room of her own. That is, free time and space. Culturally (and sadly) true.
Thank you Susan for the guidance. Hi everyone.
I have read with interest the many comments of the O'Keeffe notes, and concur as Susan T. suggests that an Artist has to have 500 pounds and someone else to do the washing up! I paint, but also keep a small farmlet with an ailing husband. dipping my toe into the commercial world of art and writing was short lived. But, my life now is my choice, in the past women were controlled by the men they married. Fortunately the modern woman can choose for herself. But again, success for your work is supported by other hands, even today there are many talented women out there who no-one has ever heard of. My friend Morgan Warren is a writer and artist who lives on one of the Gulf Islands off the coast of BC. She is successful but works very hard to put herself out there creating Art shows and publishing wonderful illustrated books on the environment and yearly calendars But it is all consuming.
We are luckier than past generations modern aids and electronic support make it easier for us to work and live another life, but it still boils down to having another pair of hands behind the scenes.
Liz, thanks for bringing those examples to the table, your own and that of your artist friend. I know this from my own life: I could not do what I do without Bill's constant support. He does a lot of what we need to do to live where/how we live. The books may have my name on them, but he's equally responsible for them--as you say, another pair of hands. That's the gift Maria gave Georgia.
"Different women at different times" Love that, Susan. A grace we should apply to ourselves as well. I love these books about women not seen but there and am looking forward to Maria's!
So good to hear from you, Jude. Too bad about the retreat--hope you are recuperating speedily. No, OOPS! I see from the Story Circle list just now that you are coming! I'm so glad you're feeling better, but don't overdo it, please! Wish I could be there, but it's just not in the cards for me this year.
Oh boy, this sounds fascinating! I can’t wait to read your book. I’m always interested in women who break with convention in order to be true to themselves. Also, I love to find out about women who’ve been overlooked in the past, whose own fascinating history has been discovered or finally revealed.
Both Maria and Georgia meet that description, Grace: unconventional women, meeting life on their own terms, true to themselves. I'll also add to your "love to find out about" list: I like books about women who are different from what we thought they were. Secret stories revealed, that is.
Oh, yes! Definitely belongs on the list.
It's interesting how frequently you've chosen subjects whose lives are affected by non-monogamous behavior. I first encountered the term "polyamory" about 25 years ago. I wonder whether a greater acceptance of ethically practiced polyamory would change our perspective on relationships that are currently forced into secrecy and/or are condemned by our culture? I have sometimes wondered about certain public figures whose extramarital relationships have been exposed, and speculated about whether the marital partners might have made agreements privately. Certainly in the current era the press is unwilling to turn a blind eye on behavior that was tacitly ignored in, for instance, the Roosevelt era. There are pros and cons to both approaches.
It's the human condition, isn't it, Patricia? We're all polyamorous by our nature, across many familial and social contexts and the many years of our lifespan. We should celebrate this, not flagellate ourselves and (worse!) others. We love whom we love. We must also respect the bonds of trust that maintain our closest relationships. Mmm. . . pretty superficial. and high-falutin' (as my mother would say). 🤦♀️ But yes, this little series of four books does center around the different ways we love and support one another.
Now that I'm thinking about it, you explore this in the China Bayles books, most particularly in her father's story, as well. It does make for compelling human drama. I am pretty fortunate to have avoided the angst that infests so many people's lives. I'm starting to mentally wander into why I respond the way I do, and I think my mother's example as an accepting and inclusive person might have helped me onto this path. My father was more of a defensive, us vs. them sort of person, while she just kept widening the circle.... Theirs was not the most tranquil of relationships, but it did endure till death did them part.
Patricia, it's not a "wander" (IMO), it's very good to think, intentionally, about why we are (or aren't) tolerant, about where and why we set boundaries (what's "right," what's "wrong"). We're living in a time when some would narrow the circle of acceptance to include only people like themselves and insist on narrowing everybody's idea of what's "legal" and "moral" to match their own. Sounds like your parents may have (inadvertently?) shown you how that works. But we certainly are seeing that every day in the political world.
Today is Maria Chabot’s birthday. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum had a very nice post about Maria on Instagram today.
That is nice, isn't it? So good that they're beginning to recognize her, although it would be lovely to fully recognize her work on the Abiquiu house. Thanks for reminding me about her birthday. Some sources report that it's today: 9/19.
I can't wait to read this book. I have read all your books and I so appreciate what you have given to the world through your writing and sharing of yourself and your life.
Susan, this book sounds fascinating. I've read both the Hickok and Summersby books and loved them both. I appreciate your focus on the "support" woman for these famous people. I also am glad your provided the timeline of your writing process on this current book and how you were nudged more than once to keep going. I look forward to reading it. I'm curious about your title. Is this in reference to O'Keefe's need to always have someone nearby despite her reputation as a "hermit?"
Yes, this was a project that the Universe insisted on (or so it seemed to me). Re the title. In an early letter, Georgia writes that she is uncertain about Maria's liking her "as something always nearby." I was struck by "something" (inanimate--did Georgia really mean to refer to herself as as a "thing"?), and changed it to animate (someone). Maria assures her that yes, she will like that. And yes, in the novel, the phrase refers to Georgia's need to have someone always available to support her and her work. Ironic, when we consider the persona she created: the solitary, self-contained, self-reliant, hermit-like artist.
Thanks for that explanation, Susan. Yes, I like the irony that you emphasize with that title. O'Keefe is known for qualities that were not particularly accurate. Interesting and also a commentary on how she created a persona for herself, which speaks to her character.
I was fascinated to read your account of writing Someone Always Nearby. I read the Hickok book some years ago and I think it was one that got me into biography. For many years I thought they wre boring--but in the last ten years I can't get enough. Summersby has been on my list for a long time and now Rose Wilder who I knew nothing about (I actually haven't read the Little House books--I must be the only one this age who hasn't). I think your approach of writing about women less known yet integral to others who get all the credit is marvelous. What woman hasn't experienced a bit of this along the way?
I'm so interested in your process and how the synchronicity of the universe brought you back to this project. When I read the Lorena Hickok book I remember thinking that I didn't know at the end what exactly the relationship was with Eleanor. Now I know you did that on purpose and I applaud that. You are introducing me to women I wanted to know and didn't know I wanted to know. Many thanks. If you were to steer me to one O'Keefe biography which would you choose? So much more to learn.
Linda, good question: which O'Keeffe bio? My thought: it depends on your interest in her. If it's her art and her career as an artist, I'd choose Robinson. If you're interested in her personal life, especially her New Mexico life and her later years, I'd go for Hogrefe.
Kay Summersby's is such a fascinating story because she was an attractive woman doing a man's job for Ike as a driver/military aide. Her wartime contributions had to be squashed and minimized after the war because she was such a huge threat to Eisenhower's reputation. (I'm personally convinced that her editor rewrote sections of her second memoir after her death, to change the story.)
I certainly enjoyed reading the background of why you chose to write this person's story!
Thank you!
I have been interested in O’Keeffe for years but was not familiar w Maria Chabot until your references. I have 3 biographies of O’Keeffe (not that I’ve read them all) and discovered that one of them is the Hogrefe. It has a bookmark in it so apparently I started reading it and didn’t get far enough. I’m looking forward to your book coming out and will probably finish the Hogrefe bio while I wait.
Hogrefe is good because he established a personal relationship with Hamilton, while Georgia was still alive and before the difficult settlement of her estate. His understanding of O'Keeffe is closer to the real woman than to the artist, seems to me--although we do have to remember that she lived a very long life and was different women at different times.
I first learned of this relationship from a fellow playwright and friend, Carolyn Gage who wrote a play (Georgia and the Butch), which is an adaptation of the letters from 1941-1949, I look forward to reading your book about Maria Chabot!
Sandra, thanks for your mention of that play--it's been on my TBR list for a while. Your comment was the prompt I needed to download it this morning. Looking forward to reading it and to seeing how Gage chose and adapted material from the letters.
That's great. Carolyn Gage is probably the most prolific lesbian playwright, and a good one. She does lots of biographical plays. I hope you enjoy it.
I read it yesterday and enjoyed it very much. CG did an excellent job pulling out and arranging the material--she created a plausible and revealing story arc that beautifully illuminates the Maria/Georgia story arc (IMO). We've just corresponded; I'm sending her a copy of Someone. And I'll be discussing the play itself in other posts. It is an excellent abridgement of those nearly-700 letters. Big thanks to you for making this connection!
This makes me SO happy!
I had never heard of Carolyn Gage, and after a bit of exploring it is clear that her work will resonate with me. Thank you for opening yet another literary avenue for me. Reading this blog is adding books to my TBR (love the shorthand!) list quite regularly.
You're welcome. You might want to sign up for Carolyn's newsletter on her website.
If I can find your email, I would like to offer a comment or two that is not a spoiler for everyone.
I think your depiction of the characters of both Georgia and Maria were spot on, and that Barbara Buhler Lynes is disappointingly bigoted. O'Keeffe was a brilliant artist and an interesting person, but not a saint with a halo. Had Lynes lived with O'Keeffe or someone like her (as I have) she would be less indulgent of O'Keeffe's conspicuous faults. Maria had her own quieter brilliance--for a woman to design and build difficult buildings when women were not architects--this is an achievement that really should make her nationally famous, displaying a huge creative and organizational talent, as well as a gift for tact and diplomacy. Maria's personality reminds me of talented people I have known who have been abused in childhood, and made to feel "different." They are highly civilized and controlled, very sensitive and empathetic, and loss of control, or even just standing up for themselves, for them results in exaggerated remorse and apology. Maria Chabon was an engaging, endearing person, steady, loyal, and generous. I wonder what Lynes is like. A bit of a stick perhaps?
Mary, I'm here: susanalbert01@gmail.com. Or just reply to the Substack email you received this morning. I appreciate all you say here and join with you in your assessment of Maria's creative achievements: huge, by any measure (although not what she planned or perhaps wished). And loyalty was certainly a cornerstone of her personality: witness her relationship with Dorothy Stewart. (Those letters are even more lovely than her O'Keeffe letters.)
I think Lynes's view was colored by her long allegiance to and support of O'Keeffe's art and anxious to defend her against the romantic rumors about her relationship with Maria. If you have access to Jstor, you might glance at Linda Grasso's review of the letters, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25679657
Wow, the research it had to have taken for you to do this Susan. I am anxious to read more about this woman.
I had a LOT of help, Sherry: my friend/research buddy Paula Yost and the archivists at the O'Keeffe Museum. Plus the enormous work put in by O'Keeffe's biographers. And more. Certainly not a one-woman project!
I look forward to reading your book, as someone who has loved going to museums to view O'Keefe's paintings since I was a teenager, thanks to my Mom, who helped develop my interest in her and many other artists. And thanks to my Dad who drove my Mom and me to Washington, D.C. one Thanksgiving weekend years ago to see an exhibition of hers there. Anyway, I look forward to the rest of your writing story!
Your parents gave you a great gift, Pamela! If you're ever in New Mexico, don't miss the O'Keeffe Museum. Wonderful displays of her work.
I am grateful to my parents every day of my life. My Mom and I always wanted to go there when we went to Arizona, but our trips to the Southwest were cut short by the sudden death of my Dad. But, my older brother lives in California, so it wouldn't be too much to travel to New Mexico from his home, if I ever do visit him out there. I would LOVE to see this museum!
Thank you for sharing the back story of Someone Always Nearby! I've been excited about this project ever since you started talking about it, and I'm looking forward to reading more about Maria, who has gotten such a bad rap. And to understanding Georgia better. I grew up knowing her as an artist whose work explained (without words) why the West is home to me, and I've read the biographies, but I still felt like I knew the image she created and guarded better than the woman herself. Someone is going to add to my understanding of both women, and I look forward to that.
Georgia lived such a long life and was so many different women, at different times in different places with different people. I think the best we can do is (as you say) "add to" our understanding of her.
It's always interesting to me how the universe aligns things: while I certainly knew who O'Keefe was and could instantly recognize some of her art (the flowers!), I knew little about her as a woman and as an artist. Last month, I read Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women by Annabel Abbs, and Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the women the author discusses. Her primary focus is on the influence that walking in wild spaces had on creativity of several well-known female artists and writers. The book is welll-researched (though she did not cite Hogrefe's book) and is a blend of biography, memoir and travelogue.
One of the interesting assertions Abbs makes about O'Keeffe's life as an artist and married woman is how her aging husband's mistress "enabled O'Keefe to continue her lengthy, solitary trips to New Mexico knowing he was cared for." There are similar examples in the book of other creative women who relied on other women so that they had some version of freedom to live lives of creative pursuits.
I have pre-ordered Someone Always Nearby and look forward to reading the story.
Yes, the universe provides some interesting intersections, doesn't it? I haven't read Abbs book, but would have to agree about the importance to O'Keeffe of walking in wild places. I also think there's a great deal of irony in "enabled." Dorothy Norman both freed O'Keeffe to escape to NM and made it necessary for her to do that--Stieglitz's open relationship with Norman was a huge embarrassment to his wife. And while O'Keeffe went alone (that is, without Stieglitz), she wasn't solitary. She always had a support staff--in the 40s, managed by Maria. Thanks for the mention of Abbs!
One of my criticisms of Abbs book is that most of the creative women she discussed were mostly privileged and were able to pursue their lives as a result of family wealth, status and occasional companions.
That's so important, Sue! Georgia was supported by wealthy patrons who bought her art (encouraged to buy by her agent/husband). Contrast her sister Ida, also talented but unsupported and poor and had to abandon her art. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rivalry-between-georgia-okeeffe-and-her-sister-ida Remembering Virginia Woolf: to do her work, a woman artist must have 500 pounds and a room of her own. That is, free time and space. Culturally (and sadly) true.