Home Studios: Georgia O'Keeffe's in Abiquiu & Gail Rieke's in Santa Fe

Friday, September 10th

We visited the home studios of two inspiring female artists today, one living and one not. At neither site were photographs permitted. On the way from one to the other, we stopped by the Tower Gallery and admired Roxanne Swentzell's sculptures.

Abiquiu hacienda perimeter wall
-- no photos allowed on the premises

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986!) bought a large and crumbling adobe in the hamlet of Abiquiu just north of Santa Fe in 1945, and spent the next three years renovating it with the assistance of Maria Chabot (or rather, Chabot oversaw the renovations with input by correspondence from O'Keeffe then mostly in New York. (See ArtNet book review below for juicy commentary on their relationship).

It's a large place (five rooms, courtyard, gardens) with grand views over the mountains -- hardly a starving artist's garrett (are there such things as garretts outside of London?). Our guide informed me O'Keeffe was financially successful quite early in her career (thanks to the promotion of her work by her husband Alfred Stieglitz, I suppose) and funded the renovations with sales of her paintings. For example the one of two cottonwood trees that still stand at the bend in the road just below the house,  recognizable even after fifty years. Or the ones of the black door in the inner wall of the courtyard -- O'Keeffe exclaimed (in a letter) that she'd fallen in love with that door and it was the reason she'd decided to buy the place

See this museum's website for one version of the Patio Door painting: http://www.chrysler.org/20century07.asp.

And here's the ArtNet review of the O'Keeffe-Chabot correspondence and relationship: http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/index/drohojowska-philp/drohojowska-philp2-11-04.asp)

The tour took us around the outside of the house more than through it -- the mud floor of the living room would not withstand the tread of rampaging tourists, we were told, and the books in the library were too delicate to be viewed. So we made do with peering through the windows of those rooms, and admired the modern appliances in the kitchen, and nodded respectfully as the guide reeled off the names of the designer furniture in the 'studio' - a spacious room outfitted like a living room, with a beige carpet O'Keeffe had had laid down towards the end as her macular degeneration meant she could no longer distinguish her beloved chows (dogs) from the dark mud floor and she was scared of stepping on them.

St Thomas adobe church in Abiquiu

We were rather disappointed with the tour (not exactly good value at $30 a head, and no photographs allowed), but I liked standing in rooms O'Keeffe once inhabited, liked viewing mountains and trees she looked at every day, liked imagining life as it might have been for her in dusty Abiquiu (I can't imagine the lanes have changed much since her departure). I'll look at her paintings of this home and this landscape with fuller knowledge. Not that O'Keeffe would appreciate a comment like that, but I for me like context.


                                                               

Roxanne Swentzell's 'Judgment 'Reflectors'

Interlude:

On the way back from Abiquiu to Santa Fe is the Tower Gallery, where sculptor Roxanne Swentzell displays her clay figures. Each one is so alive, so personal, and its emotion is to be read from its posture but also described in words for good measure. I loved them.

The 'Judgment Reflectors' description reads:

"I was feeling rather beat up from people's judments on me and I found myself trying to find ways to protect myself. The image of reflectors came to mind. I so enjoyed creating this piece because while I made her she actually worked to block the attacks I was feeling. I imagine the mirrors bouncing their mean thoughts off me and back to them to see themselves. A reminder of how we hurt others with our judgments."

Gail Rieke

Gail Rieke and her husband Zach had travelled down to Albuequerque for their friend Mary Ellen Long's art opening at The Land Gallery on Saturday, September 4th--  which is where Wren and I met her (see blog entry from that date). She told us then that she made art work related to travel, and led art tours to Japan (which is where she'd gotten to know Mary Ellen). Gail lives in Santa Fe, and invited us to visit her when we were in town, with notice we should give her advance warning (or was it a warning we should give her advance notice...).