No. 14 Special 1916

Georgia O'Keeffe made this drawing, No. 14 Special, with charcoal, giving it a smoky, soft quality that feels both abstract and deeply familiar. It's like she's feeling her way through the shapes, letting the charcoal lead. The texture is incredible; you can almost feel the grain of the paper beneath the velvety charcoal. Look at how those dark, solid rectangles hover over the swirling landscape, it is a really powerful image. And the lines that cut across the picture plane add a sense of movement, like something shifting or growing. The marks are so direct, they remind us of the physical act of drawing. O'Keeffe's work, especially her drawings, always makes me think of Agnes Martin. Both had a way of distilling the world down to its essence. And as with all great art, there's no single right way to see it. It's about what you bring to the experience.