Me and My O'Keeffe Shoes

Creative Musings: Shoes for O’Keeffe

2015 marks the year! 100 years ago Georgia O’Keeffe was a professor of art at Columbia College.  She was a focused and self-supporting twenty-eight year old when she arrived in Columbia, SC.  It is here where she planted the seeds for her mature abstract expressionist style.  My community is celebrating her creative period at Columbia College with a year of city wide offerings.

My father, Guthrie Darr, taught in the music department at Columbia College for 44 years, and during my undergraduate studies, I spent a couple of years there in the art department.  So when Judy Hubbard asked me to brainstorm with her about her upcoming “O’Keeffe” exhibition at Columbia College, I was thrilled. Judy and I have been pals for around 30 years.  We know each other well, can say anything to each other so when she a we had a blast.

What Judy created, with a little help from her friends, was a true gift to our community!

 

Me and My O'Keeffe Shoes

Me and My O’Keeffe Shoes

 

Envisioning O’Keeffe, is the title Judy gave to her installation.  The exhibition features more than 50 pairs of shoes transformed by South Carolina women of all ages.   All of the artistic interpretations are inspired by O’Keeffe’s journey and legacy.

 

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Envisioning O’Keeffe, Installation by Judy Hubbard

“I was inspired by the compassionate letter that 26 year old  Frida Kahlo wrote to 46 year old Georgia O’Keeffe in 1933.  Depressed and brutally exhausted from not being able to complete a commission, Georgia was put on bed rest and ordered not to paint for an entire year.  Frida understood her angst and through the art of the written word expressed her support for the tenderness of creative spirit!

“Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time.”

Frida Kahlo wrote a compassionate letter to Georgia O'Keeffe in 1933

Frida Kahlo wrote a compassionate letter to Georgia O’Keeffe in 1933.

 

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Thanks to Judy Hubbard for the opportunity to be a small part of “Envisioning O’Keeffe.”

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