Amy Barickman

New York is a city with surprises and history around every corner. On a recent trip, my husband booked us into the Marriott at 49th and Lexington. Upon arrival, I was excited to find out the building had once been the home of Georgia O’Keefe and her husband, the renowned photographer Alfred Steglitz. My grandma, Mildred, who loved art and herself was a painter, was a huge fan of O’Keefe and taught me about her works at an early age. In addition, I took photography classes as part of my Fine Arts degree – as well as studying them in Art History – so I was well aware of the photography of Steglietz.

Here is some of the information about O’Keefe posted in the hotel, accompanying many prints of her work:

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)

Georgia O’Keeffe was born in the small town of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 1887. After studying art in Chicago and New York she became an art teacher at Columbia College, South Carolina.  Her work soon came to the attention of the famous photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who asked her to come to New York. Eventually the two were married.

As a married couple they lived in the Shelton Club Hotel, today known as the Marriott Eastside, and had a suite on the 32nd floor, which became their home for ten years. It is at this time that Georgia O’Keeffe painted her first large scale flowers, including her famous “Petunia” in 1924 and first exhibited her collections in 1925.

After Stieglitz died in 1946, Georgia O’Keeffe moved to an isolated ranch in New Mexico where she produced many great works. Her paintings of desert cliffs, animal bones and flowers are among the world’s most admired works of art. She continued to draw, paint and sculpt until her death in 1986 at the age of 98. At 90 she told a friend: “Success takes more than talent. It takes a kind of nerve…a kind of nerve and a lot of hard, hard work.”

Having put a lot of hard work into both my businesses over the last few years, I really appreciate O’Keefe’s perspective on “success.” However, if you’ll allow me to quote The Woman’s Institute (what a surprise, huh?), I would also suggest that success is also about even more than nerve, talent and hard work. It’s about how we conduct ourselves with each other. As I quoted The Institute in my book, Vintage Notions, “…service to others. Mine to you; yours to me and others; and so on without end. That is the secret to success.”

Back to the hotel…here are some photo notes:

• The fitness center on the 35th floor had wonderful views facing the East River (see the photo from the fitness area and Georgia’s painting from the same perspective)
• I found the 3210 plaque outside a room. It was a thrill to see the city in the same location as she painted.

To top off my NYC/Georgia experience, there was a photography show at the Metropolitan Museum of art featuring Steglitz’s work (which I thoroughly enjoyed). All of this brought back memories of my Grandma telling me that she had once visited Ghost Ranch (O’Keefe’s home in New Mexico) and how amazing that experience was. I hope to visit someday soon and share it with you.

~ Amy

For those of you who would like to read a bit more about O’Keefe and her time in NYC, I found this additional information on her New York Architectural paintings and why she stopped creating them:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/freed/okeeffe/skyscrapers.html

http://www.nbmaa.org/timeline_highlights/highlights/essays/okeefe.html

P.S. Recently, I was also in Palm Desert, California and shot this petunia that reminded me of the painting I had seen on the hotel wall. Just thought I’d share it too!