The Best Georgia Okeeffe quotes

You write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower–and I don’t. — Georgia O

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. — Georgia Okeeffe

I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty. — Georgia O

A flower is relatively small… Still in a way–nobody sees a flower–so I said to myself–I’ll paint it big. — Georgia O

A flower touches everyone’s heart. — Georgia O

Whether the flower or the color is the focus I do not know. I do know the flower is painted large to convey my experience with the flower–and what is my experience if it is not the color? — Georgia O

I hate flowers–I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move. — Georgia O

The days you work are the best days. — Georgia O

It was all so far away–there was quiet and an untouched feel to the country and I could work as I pleased. — Georgia O

I look at my work and make up my mind about it. After that, neither flattery nor criticism matters to me. — Georgia O

One can not be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work. — Georgia O

I do not like the idea of happiness–it is too momentary–I would say that I was always busy and interested in something–interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happiness. — Georgia O

I see no reason for painting anything that can be put into any other form as well. — Georgia O

I got half–a–dozen paintings from that shattered plate. — Georgia O

Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. — Georgia O

Sometimes I start in a very realistic fashion, and as I go on from one painting to another of the same kind, it becomes simplified until it can be nothing but abstraction. — Georgia O

I don’t very much enjoy looking at paintings in general. I know too much about them. I take them apart. — Georgia O

I am trying with all my skill to do a painting that is all woman, as well as all of me. — Georgia O

My painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world gives to me. — Georgia O

In the evening I go up in the desert and spend hours watching the sun go down, just enjoying it, and every day I go out and watch it again. I draw some and there is a little painting and so the days go by. — Georgia O

I don’t know what Art is but I know some things it isn’t when I see them. — Georgia O

Art is a wicked thing. It is what we are. — Georgia O

Slits in nothingness are not very easy to paint. — Georgia O

The abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can clarify in paint. — Georgia O

One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt. — Georgia O

I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint. — Georgia O

If one could only reproduce nature, and always with less beauty than the original, why paint at all? — Georgia O

I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to. — Georgia O

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

Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. It is so spontaneous. And after singing, I think the violin. Since I cannot sing, I paint. — Georgia O

I’d been taught to paint like other people, and I thought, what’s the use? I couldn’t do any better than they, or even as well. I was just adding to the brushpile. So I quit. — Georgia O

Now and then when I get an idea for a picture, I think, how ordinary. Why paint that old rock? Why not go for a walk instead? But then I realise that to someone else it may not seem so ordinary. — Georgia O

I am not an exponent of expressionism. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I don’t like the sound of it. I dislike cults and isms. I want to paint in terms of my own thinking and feeling. — Georgia O

I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life–and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. — Georgia O

It’s not enough to be nice in life. You’ve got to have nerve. — Georgia O

I’ve been afraid every single day of my life, but I’ve gone ahead and done it anyway. — Georgia O

My pleasant disposition likes the world with nobody in it. (Life, March 1, 1968) — Georgia O

Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous. — Georgia O

I like to convey the idea that art is important in everyday life. — Georgia O

It seems to be my mission in life to wait on a dog. — Georgia O

I find that I have painted my life–things happening in my life–without knowing. — Georgia O

I know I am unreasonable about people but there are so many wonderful people whom I can’t take the time to know. — Georgia O

I’m frightened all the time. But I never let it stop me. Never! — Georgia O

To see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. — Georgia O

The morning is the best time, there are no people around. My pleasant disposition likes the world with nobody in it. — Georgia O

I don’t really know where I got my artists idea. The scraps of what I remember do not explain to me where it came from. I only know that by this time it was definitely settled in my mind. — Georgia O

I have a single track mind. I work on an idea for a long time. It’s like getting acquainted with a person, and I don’t get acquainted easily. — Georgia O

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

It was in the 1920s, when nobody had time to reflect, that I saw a still–life painting with a flower that was perfectly exquisite, but so small you really could not appreciate it. — Georgia O

Anyone who doesn’t feel the crosses simply doesn’t get that country. — Georgia O

There’s something about black. You feel hidden away in it. — Georgia O

I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore. — Georgia O

Did you ever have something to say and feel as if the whole side of the wall wouldn’t be big enough to say it on, and then sit down on the floor and try to get it onto a sheet of charcoal paper? — Georgia O

I believe I would rather have Stieglitz like something–anything I had done–than anyone else I know. — Georgia O