Georgia O'Keefe: Making Your Unknown Known

“I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe, Georgia O'Keeffe

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing--and keeping the unknown always beyond you.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for a moment.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way... things I had no words for.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I think it's so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary--you're happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“My first memory is of light -- the brightness of light -- light all around.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I can't live where I want to, I can't go where I want to go, I can't do what I want to, I can't even say what I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“To create one's own world takes courage.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I have things in my head that are not like what anyone taught me — shapes and ideas so near to me, so natural to my way of being and thinking.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“One day a hummingbird flew in--
It fluttered against the window til I got it down where I could reach it with an open umbrella--
--When I had it in my hand it was so small I couldn't believe I had it--but I could feel the intense life--so intense and so tiny--
...You were like the humming bird to me...
And I am rather inclined to feel that you and I know the best part of one another without spending much time together--
--It is not that I fear the knowing--
It is that I am at this moment willing to let you be what you are to me--it is beautiful and pure and very intensely alive.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe