It is rare that I get to sit down on the couch and actually watch a film these days. So when the opportunity arises, I am beyond thrilled. I love film, no wait, that's not it. Rather, it is the feeling that film produces, the quality of reaching something meaningful and directly related to my own experience of life. I remember as a child, how watching certain films would shift my reality and would inspire me towards a certain way of being. At one point, I thought I was destined to be the real life karate kid. And then a week passed and I was on to being Mary Poppins:) Film has always been a powerful means of expression for human emotion. The opportunity to see a really lovely film can be transformative. This past weekend, I rented the new Georgia O'Keefe film and really fell in love with that woman. She lived by her own reasons. She was incredibly simple and yet dynamic. Is that possible for one to be both simple and dynamic? Perhaps not, but I am assuming such. She changed the way I understand how those two opposing adjectives can be truly complementary of one another.
I went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe a few years back. I have to admit, though her paintings are beautiful, I don't love them. I enjoy looking at them for their use of brilliant color and provocative sensualism, but I wouldn't choose to hang one on my wall at home. I was actually more moved by the black and white photo exhibit of O'Keefe. I would go back just to revisit those photos. I found them earthy and raw and incredibly self telling. Anyhow, through all my experiences of Ms. O'Keefe, she has come to exemplify beauty in so many ways.
I think that her fascination with Taos, New Mexico is part of the camaraderie. I found Taos to be a place filled with magic and soul. It melts away the layers, dries out the inadequacy, and leaves one feeling both humble and powerful. Perhaps that is why it is a refuge for artists. I could write a novel about Taos, but my purpose here was really to share my appreciation of Ms. O'Keefe. I have come to understand her as I have come to understand Taos. She comes off as an such a strong, hardy woman, but she is delicate and her heart holds a capacity for love that is rare. Just like Taos, a seemingly rough and austere presence at times holds a treasure for those who stay long enough to know it. The thing that also fascinated me about O'Keefe was her devotion to her "husband." The film portrayed him as a self-centered, eccentric type that knew very little about how to love a woman. O'Keefe lived her life for her, but even so she had a deep love for this man and a deep longing for him to recognize all that was good in her. There is something to be said about this. With ever reason not to love someone/something, for every reason not to allow our lives to be run always by what is felt and for every reason to concern ourselves first with honoring our own purpose, there is that one reason that simply outshines them all, "The heart has reasons, reason knows nothing of." -(Pascal). And this is what I loved most about her, that ability to move through life with grace and joy in spite of all that does not go as planned, and in spite of not being able to have all that the heart desires.
So thank you Georgia O'Keefe, thank you for your life and work. I will whisper your name every time I enter the canvas of Taos, as I feel somehow I knew you.
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