Blue and Pink (October 17, 2007)

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As late as 1976, the year before her ninetieth birthday, O'Keeffe made her ongoing commitment to abstraction clear. "The abstraction," she wrote, "is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can only clarify in paint."

Apparently, Georgia O'Keefe sought inspiration for her paintings from other forms of artistic expression. Art historians believe the pink and blue painting was inspired by music. Others believe it was inspired by a natural arch from a trip O'Keefe took before painting the piece.

At Hotel Utah, a bar in San Francisco, I was listening to my friends play music, and I thought (a thought perhaps subconsciously drawing from the didatics at the O'Keefe exhibit at the MIA), about the perfection of expression through a work of art. It seems that artistic creation may be the purest communication that could ever exist.

I can't help but believe each of us is capable of perfect creation(s). Perhaps we manage to express ourselves in a pure way, but it isn't (or isn't yet) considered valuable or artistic in social standards.

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