MY VERY OWN O'KEEFE

The Polo House Favorites on the 1st-June ART!

When I had my art gallery, I had a 12 x 12 show where 20 artist friends graciously donated their work to benefit our local museum. It was a smashing success…live music, good food, huge crowd of art lovers, and a nice sum of money raised.

In the years that I was an art gallery owner, it never occurred to me to not invite the artists that I came across to have a show in our small in the middle of nowhere town. Several prominent artists expressed to me that our show was the best they’d ever had in both attendance and sales.

Thank you town where I live!

That’s how I met my very own Georgia O’Keefe. Her name is Marilyn and her work is exhibited in several very exclusive galleries in the US.

If you were to meet her on the street, you might think she’s a grandmother (she is) who drives a farm grain truck (she does) whose aging hands have held a shovel (they have) rather than an artist’s brush(they do).

The first time I walked into her home and studio, I saw this picture and fell head over heels in love with it. I never forgot it. And crazy as it seems, thought about it often.

Recently, we were fortunate enough to purchase two of her pieces and visited her studio to choose them. I asked about the birdbath and she told me it had never left her house and it was not for sale.

I understood.

But later, this is the email she sent me.

Gina..... Upstairs as I am painting..... I keep getting drawn to the little birdbath from Ramon Kelly's garden at his old Church/Studio....... It is as if for some unknown reason...... it needs to live at your house. This is really unusual. It was an early fall day, first snow the night before, about 5 artists were just really doing a fun paintout complete with wine.... That's what came out in about 2 hours or less..... never touched it again..... It is again, one of the pivotal pieces, where shapes are strong even though the values are close. It is 18"x14" image size. It has sentimental attachment, as I said, I really don't want to sell it, it has never been shown.

She gave it to me as a gift for purchasing the other two and it now LIVES at my house.

I don’t know if you have ever had the fortune to be in the presence of something or someone greater and bigger than you will ever know. But that’s how Marilyn is..larger than life.

Her work is wonderful today, but she will be known long years from now and this little birdbath picture will hang in someone’s house who I dearly love and may not even know yet myself.

I’m sure it will find its way to where it wants to live next. But for now, it belongs to me.