Viewing page 3 of 69

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Friday Feb 24, '39

Georgia O'Keefe came to visit me tonight. Miss Sprague, public health nurse, brought her. I had told Miss Sprague a month ago when she came to see my things, "If Georgia O'Keefe can paint bones all her life, I can paint sand all my life too!" So O Keefe was wondering who this fellar was, who painted sand. (She said)

She stayed more than an hour; talked about herself, her "original way of seeing things - and of course my ability to paint" - her childhood, when she always wanted to be different - "I'd wear green stockings if my sisters wore white - I was always embarrassing them by being different!" - her first exhibit - for herself only, when she finished art school - "I was always having exhibits for myself" - how she decided she wasn't painting in her personal idiom, how "I had no wish to let others see my things" - how her charcoal sketches got in the hands of Mr. Stigiler(?) in N.Y. - the consequent shows - one after 4 years & yearly thereafter.- how she doesn't read the notices of her winter shows "until I'm just about to leave for New Mexico in the summer - & I don't know many artists. I never care to live with them. I live far away from them. I do know Marin - one of the truly great of today.
 
She asked to see the New Yorker & Time - to read about Kuniyoshi's show - (her show is showing at the same time). K. has brought the East & West together.
She said: I would learn more from the old masters (Chinese, etc) than from the living painters - there are few very great ones today. She likes Picasso for his lines. I said I like him for his originality, & El Greco for his religious mood & rhythem