Georgia O'Keeffe on Flowers

O’Keefe is most famous for her giant paintings of flowers, to which viewers often ascribe sexual connotations — but O’Keeffe insisted otherwise. Here are a few excerpts of her writing on the subject, laid out as a poem for your reading pleasure.

If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it
no one would see what I see
because I would paint it small
like the flower is small.
So I said to myself—I’ll paint what I see—
what the flower is to me
but I’ll paint it big
and they will be surprised
into taking time to look at it—
I will make even busy New Yorkers
take time to see what I see of flowers.

And to those who insisted on interpreting her floral portraits sexually, O’Keeffe replied:

Well—I made you take time to look at what I saw
and when you took time to really notice my flower
you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower
and you write about my flower
as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower—
and I don’t.

What did O’Keeffe have in mind, then, when it comes to encountering a flower? In a word, friendship:

Everyone has many associations with a flower—
the idea of flowers.
You put out your hand and touch the flower—
lean forward to smell it—
maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking—
or give it to someone to please them.
Still—in a way—
nobody sees a flower—really—
it is so small—and we haven’t time—
and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.

+ Georgia O’Keeffe