Quotes By Georgia O’Keeffe
Last Updated on November 24, 2022
Summary: In order to give you a glimpse into the life of Georgia O’Keeffe, we have collected the best Georgia O’Keeffe quotes.
Artistically, Georgia O’Keeffe is revered as the “Mother of American Modernism” because of her many contributions to the modern art movement.
Her floral paintings, New Mexico landscapes, and New York cityscapes have brought her widespread acclaim. For her innovative take on modernism, O’Keeffe was among the first women to receive widespread critical praise as an artist.
In remembrance of the pioneering photographer Georgia O’Keeffe, we have compiled an amazing collection of quotes to celebrate her life and work.
1. “It’s not enough to be nice in life. You’ve got to have nerve.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
2. “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from a single thing that I wanted to do.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
3. “Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
3. “Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing–and keeping the unknown always beyond you.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
4. “If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
5. “I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality. I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say—in paint.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
6. “Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
7. “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way… things I had no words for.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
8. “To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
9. “To create one’s own world takes courage.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
10. “It never occurs to me that (skulls) have anything to do with death. They are very lively. I have enjoyed them very much in relation to the sky.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
11. “I can’t live where I want to, I can’t go where I want to go, I can’t do what I want to, I can’t even say what I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
12. “My first memory is of light — the brightness of light — light all around.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
14. “I’m frightened all the time. But I never let it stop me. Never!” – Georgia O’Keeffe
16. “Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
17. “I said to myself, ‘I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me—shapes and ideas near to me—so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down.’ I decided to start anew to strip away what I had been taught.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
18. “Someone else’s vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it ’cause in the end it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
19. “I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see—and I don’t.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
20. “The morning is the best time, there are no people around. My pleasant disposition likes the world with nobody in it.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
21. “The unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel the world is big fat beyond my understanding – to understand maybe by trying to put it into form. To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
22. “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
23. “What I see outside my bedroom window in winter is really wonderful… I like my life.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
24. “…in a way—nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small—we haven’t time—and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
25. “One cannot be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
26. “I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.” – Georgia O’Keeffe Quotes
27. “I hate flowers.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
28.
“One day a hummingbird flew in-
Georgia O’Keeffe
It fluttered against the window til I got it down where I could reach it with an open umbrella-
-When I had it in my hand it was so small I couldn’t believe I had it–but I could feel the intense life-so intense and so tiny-
…You were like the humming bird to me…
And I am rather inclined to feel that you and I know the best part of one another without spending much time together–
-It is not that I fear the knowing-
It is that I am at this moment willing to let you be what you are to me-it is beautiful and pure and very intensely alive.”
29. “You are one of my nicest thoughts.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
30. “I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
31. “I have lived on a razor’s edge. So what if you fall off – I’d rather be doing something I really wanted to do. I’d walk it again.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
32. “It seems to me very important to the idea of true democracy – to my country – and to the world eventually – that all men and women stand equal under the sky.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
33. “I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
34. “Marks on paper are free – free speech – press – pictures all go together I suppose.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
35. “It’s my private mountain. It belongs to me. God told me if I painted that mountain enough, I could have it.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
36. “I got half-a-dozen paintings from that shattered plate.” – Georgia O’Keeffe Quotes
37. “I had it in my head, well, I couldn’t have been 12, that I was going to be a painter.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
38. “I do know the flower is painted large to convey my experience with the flower – and what is my experience if it is not the color?” – Georgia O’Keeffe
39. “Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
40. “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
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