How Georgia O'Keeffe Nourished Her Art
January 15, 2024
Tired of New York City’s “cars, crowds, and skyscrapers,” Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), who’d been painting large, lush flowers, escapes to the “canyons, mesas, and skyscapes” of New Mexico. There, she gets in touch with both the land and her younger self—the Wisconsin farm girl determined to be an artist. O’Keeffe cultivates a garden and paints to the rhythms of nature as well as welcomes friends to simple, bountiful meals. “The art of caretaking—of her home and her garden—nourished O’Keeffe’s art-making,” Robinson writes. Hooper’s illustrations range from the realistic to the impressionistic; one vignette shows an elaborately layered bouquet of blooms emerging from O’Keeffe’s head, while another illuminates a long outdoor table laden with home-cooked foods. It’s an uncomplicated portrait that highlights how the intersection of environment and creative freedom formed an artist for whom “everything was art, and art was everything.” An afterword includes the subject’s recipe for pecan butterballs. Ages 4–8.
Starred review from January 1, 2024
Grades K-3 *Starred Review* This gentle, beautiful work can inspire many conversations and complement numerous classroom studies, describing as it does the life of Georgia O'Keeffe as an artist, gardener, chef for her friends, and conservationist. "To Georgia, everything was art, and art was everything," and readers will learn how her life embodied those maxims in everything she did. The text appears in short bursts alongside Hooper's vivid paintings of scenes from O'Keeffe's life and of her oversize flowers. The flowers first appear as part of O'Keeffe's artworks, but then, after Robinson relates how the artist fled the confines of New York City for the open, colorful landscape of New Mexico, they also appear in the garden that she lovingly tended and that was such an inspiration. O'Keeffe employed sustainable gardening techniques, such as companion planting instead of pesticides, and these and other conservation ideas are discussed in the afterword. O'Keeffe's recipe for pecan butterballs and a list of online and print sources for the book also appear in the back matter. This will be a great companion read to Patrick McDonnell's Me . . . Jane (2011) for readers who want to learn about women who blazed their own trail and is a must for public library and classroom shelves.
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Starred review from January 1, 2024
Picture-book biographies about this important American artist abound; this one takes a path less traveled. The book opens with Georgia O'Keeffe's famed flower paintings but quickly shifts focus. After fleeing busy New York for "the wide skies" of New Mexico, the artist bought a home in Abiqui� in 1945. In addition to painting, she grew a garden, cooked, and baked. Readers will learn what she planted, how she relied on organic means to keep destructive insects at bay, and how her gardening and painting were deeply intertwined. When showcasing O'Keeffe's art, Robinson employs quotes (undocumented, but a bibliography is provided). Hooper incorporates her subject's style and content in key scenes: city skyscrapers against a darkened sky; puffy, isolated clouds foregrounding the garden. While O'Keeffe's relationship to Alfred Stieglitz is not mentioned, the title does connect her childhood experiences on a Wisconsin farm to her adult pursuits. Shifting perspectives and dynamic design accompany interesting details, beautifully described. In one scene, a pea vine crosses the gutter diagonally, while small, sequential insets in mustard and black show O'Keeffe painting, sewing, and collecting bones as her garden grows. Following the harvest, a bountiful table with home-grown goodness and delectable desserts is paired with a recipe card for pecan butterballs. Who knew? A veritable feast for the eyes and the mind. (photograph, biographical note, information on sustainable gardening, pecan butterballs recipe) (Informational picture book. 5-9)
COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
March 1, 2024
Spare, poetic text and illustrations rich in color and detail provide a unique insight into a well-known artist. Beginning in well-trodden territory with descriptions of O'Keeffe's (1887-1986) flower paintings, Robinson quickly directs the story to the artist's later life and the ways that not only the natural landscape of New Mexico but also the nourishing acts of tending a garden and feeding friends inspired her art. The text is lean but full of evocative details. Hooper's illustrations focus on the things O'Keeffe loved -- landscapes and natural materials take precedence over people, who are often sketched in black and white over the riot of color of a table of food or a garden full of flowers. One memorable page-turn first shows a young Georgia surrounded by the kinds of small natural objects that intrigued her; on the following spread, many of the same objects are shown much larger and more painterly, leaping out of an older O'Keeffe's head. Back matter includes brief biographical information, more details about some of her sustainable gardening techniques, a list of sources, and O'Keeffe's recipe for pecan butterball cookies. Laura Koenig
(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
May 24, 2024
Gr 1-3-While Georgia O'Keeffe's art has been properly celebrated in several picture books, this loving tribute focuses on its sources of inspiration-most particularly the land and its bounty. After exchanging the skyscrapers of New York for a more solitary life beneath the broad skyscapes of New Mexico, Robinson writes, the artist planted a garden from which for the rest of her life she harvested sustainably grown fruit, vegetables, and flowers that nourished her art-making. Hooper unwisely attempts to reproduce several of O'Keeffe's paintings but, on other pages, along with lush floral sprays and spreads of baked goods, she offers more evocative images of close up leaves and flowers, of puffy clouds, and golden desert hills. These are interspersed with glimpses of the artist working on paper and canvas, carefully arranging potted succulents and animal bones, making her own clothes, and gazing contemplatively into the distance. "Her garden still grows today," the author concludes, though it may remain more abstract than real to young audiences as actual views of it are notably absent, and a closing photo of the artist only shows her kneeling on a patch of rocky, uncultivated ground. Still, earlier pictures of vegetable seed packets and a tally of flowers in the narrative at least hint at the titular gifts, and the back matter features brief guidelines for budding organic gardeners. Better yet, the trove of handwritten recipes she left behind is represented by a truly inspiring one for Pecan Butterballs (1 cup butter, 2 cups pecans, a little flour to hold things together-yum!). VERDICT Too limited in scope to be a first introduction to (arguably) the greatest American painter, though of some value for its insights into her character and later life.-John Edward Peters
Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2024
Spare, poetic text and illustrations rich in color and detail provide a unique insight into a well-known artist. Beginning in well-trodden territory with descriptions of O'Keeffe's (1887-1986) flower paintings, Robinson quickly directs the story to the artist's later life and the ways that not only the natural landscape of New Mexico but also the nourishing acts of tending a garden and feeding friends inspired her art. The text is lean but full of evocative details. Hooper's illustrations focus on the things O'Keeffe loved -- landscapes and natural materials take precedence over people, who are often sketched in black and white over the riot of color of a table of food or a garden full of flowers. One memorable page-turn first shows a young Georgia surrounded by the kinds of small natural objects that intrigued her; on the following spread, many of the same objects are shown much larger and more painterly, leaping out of an older O'Keeffe's head. Back matter includes brief biographical information, more details about some of her sustainable gardening techniques, a list of sources, and O'Keeffe's recipe for pecan butterball cookies.
(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)