georgia o'keeffe and her pottery

i recently learned on a trip to new mexico with my mom that georgia o'keeffe made pottery, but much later in her life. and no i am not speaking of her plaster and bronze work, but pottery, clay, molded and fired. i don't know why i didn't know that, but alas here i was in her home, learning new things about a woman who loved new mexico.

i took my mom to santa fe and its surrounding area for her birthday. a roadtrip, just us gals. as you may know, i love new mexico. my mother being a fan of art we decided to do all things georgia o'keeffe. we started the trip with her home and studio tour out in abiquiu. it was an unusual day in the desert state, it was pouring rain, a storm was passing through but that did not stop or cancel tours. my mother was excited, quiet but beaming on her birthday. before the tour, as i was checking in at the welcome centre, she explored the garden at the abiquiu inn and i completely lost her. she was like a kid in a playground, excited and amazed. she was very quickly learning how artful new mexico is, filled with creativity and expression amidst the mountains, mesas and plateaus.

anyways, during the latter half of the tour our lovely guide frank told us of juan hamilton, a young man who became her caretaker and companion later in her life. he was a potter, and he inspired georgia at the late age of 84 to engage in the art of pottery. you see georgia suffered from macular degeneration in those years, slowly losing her eye sight. she maintained some of her peripheral vision, but as frank told us, the tangibility of clay in her hands must have felt liberating for someone losing their eyesight, living a new reality. in her bedroom there are two clay pots, her very first pots we were told. the colors of them, the shapes, so simple and so dignified i felt connected to her in some way. all i could think was: wow those are beautiful but how funny, my first pots were wonky too, imperfect in shape but hers were beautiful in creation.

juan hamilton's work lies in her studio, large and egg-like. its black color can be seen in almost every photo you can find of the two. he not only was her driver, plumber, assistant, caretaker, but he gifted her with his work, inspired by her obviously, just as she had inspired so many.

many statues still live within her studio, unlike her art, which has been relocated to museums. but a cast piece of hers that lies within her home and studio is a statue called "abstraction". it was made before she met juan, in 1916 and was plaster cast. so obviously not pottery but reminiscent of so. frank told us the statue was for her mother, a bowing white figure. it spoke of grief, of honor and of the quiet a mother holds. my mother was enamored with it, maybe being a mother herself, something about it connected with her.

all in all, it was a lovely trip. the rain did leave, revealing the sunny and expansive skies for my mother to witness. we explored, we laughed, we enjoyed. i'd take her again. and i always seem to find pottery in new mexico that always makes me feel calm and inspired to continue in this material that is pottery. let's see what i make next.