Georgia O'Keeffe c. 1924

Here's a photograph of Georgia O'Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz. Look at O'Keeffe holding that drawing. It's a little snapshot of her thinking, that moment when a painting starts to come into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. You can tell she’s working something out. I sympathize with her. When I make a painting, I ask myself, what was it like for her to create these paintings? What was she thinking when she made them? It's a conversation across time, with other artists. She’s playing with light and shadow, but those soft, smudgy marks she’s made with the graphite on the paper are also about feeling, intention, and meaning. The ambiguity lets us bring our own experiences to the table. It's like she's saying, "Here's a start; now, what do *you* see?" Because that’s what art is all about, right? A shared space of imagination, exchange, and inspiration.