Making the Unknown Known

Georgia O'Keeffe created thousands of paintings. She did not write much about her work, nor did she make many public appearances.  She wrote this in a letter to Sherwood Anderson:  "Making your unknown known is the important thing--and keeping the unknown always beyond you..."

She often worked in sets, and made sets of sets. One image sometimes occurred in twelve variations of paintings. Her explorations were long and deep. According to an O'Keeffe website:

She was not afraid to experiment with the patterns, sizes, design, and the intricacy to detail, which often took on the resemblance of the female form in many of her works. She took the discretion to make small parts large and vice-versa, she changed the color balances, and created disharmony, which would force those who looked at these pieces of art, to see the images as something else. In her work, she also stretched the visual edges, to design features which had metaphysical implications in many of her pieces. 

"I feel there is something unexplored about women that only a woman can explore" and "to create one's world in any of the arts takes courage. ” There is a similarity between painting and the images in poetry. Georgia O'Keeffe is an example of hardworking artist who continued to explore her landscape and unique set of images.