I loved reading about Georgia, the artist, and her life events.
Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O’Keeffe by Dawn Tripp
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved reading about Georgia. The Evening Star and how marriage is a very long thing.
“Those gorgeous German boys in their smart uniforms, …” (p.79. )
On to Part Two, …
As I turn pages, I want to read it all at once!
O’Keeffe comes to life in this novel. Beauty in the words of an artist’s life, vision, and artwork. Sensual scenes between lovers, artists, and the world they create together. Amazing in the subtle moments, the inner thoughts of Georgia, and how she deeply feels about her subjects. The artist is cranky and richly charged, and she is fascinating to read about and learn how she creates scenes on the canvas. Tripp’s novel has such lively details about the relationships of artists, poets, and writers and how they mesh together to become known and often compete to be popular.
The struggles of O’Keeffe and her family and her relationships are necessary to her art. The artist becomes a female leader in a world of men, even though, she does not think of it in this manner.
The lush images of her flowers, the bold lines of her buildings, and her essence for nature are apparent via her art.
When Georgia feels her relationship with Albert failing and her marriage falling apart, she creates another location where she finds herself and has peace in a land where the desert and force of nature surround her.
“…I will see my invitation as strange, …” Jean enters. She has visitors again. At the Lake, she hangs the Picasso drawing. Lake George, the typewriter echoes, and Georgia feels better.
Toomer enters her life, when she needs a caregiver and close friend. He carries her on and heals her. They share a charge for life and also know what loss can do to their souls. The scenes in the house between them are beautiful and so touching at that point in her life. I wanted to know more about their connection and relationship. This comes toward the end of the novel and I couldn’t stop reading it at this point.
It is unexpectedly nice to have someone to help out. She teases Jean. The cold moves in and the lake freezes. Frozen pipes, bitter cold, and the need to shovel. Jean Toomer is useful and he listens to music with her. They talk about art, politics, race issues, writing, and his wife. They share meals and reflect on life together. This relationship is beautiful. New Mexico and the small village there are things she shares with Jean. The hills and the earth she loves to paint. “That dust is different from the dust of any other place.” She asks Toomer to stay longer at the Lake.
“After”
The Ghost Ranch and the second house. The adobe smoothed by the locals, the garden, and the old stables come to her as a lovely setting. They are hers. Tomato jelly, cliffs, and the silence draw her to it. There is a quiet joy. Albert asks her to stay longer in New York with him. She refuses.
Georgia takes control of the gallery, and the rent fund, and tells Dorothy Norman to remove her things. She is disgusted with her and wants her gone.
In the fall, she is in New Mexico, and the mountain calls to her. She paints it, the snow, and the red hills. The blue wash of the sky and the river valley and her brush. A black bird flying…”I loved you once.” her thoughts fly by.
Now,
The American West, reclusive, and self-reliant, she chooses the desert. Mystery all around her. She walks with her dogs and has coffee and she is the Pioneer Painter. The tables in her studio are covered with her art. Enthralled with the zine of the land. Fierce woman on the cover of Life magazine. A legend that works in watercolors, oils, and charcoal.
Juan enters her life. Another truly amazing turn of events. He is good to her. A flirt and young man who understands her soul.
Ray comes to visit. Her sister’s grandson. He has a legal case in the area and joins her for the weekend. Georgia shows him her house, talks to him about her life there, and leads him to her tree. The tamarisk tree that she watches. Ray sees the gleaming shape of the Porter rock!
The rock was a beautiful story by itself. “See that was the not-true part. The Porters invited me for supper, and I stole it.”–I laughed, here! So, Georgia! Did Albert, laugh too–from above? He would admire this about her.
Stieglitz was perhaps hers but not totally. She knew this, and it became a thorn in her side.
Josie's Kaleidoscope 