Georgia O’Keeffe is one of America and the world’s most well-known female artists. Before a research project I wrote on this incredible woman in the spring, I asked my friends and family to name the first female visual artist that popped into their head. Almost every single one, whether they were familiar with art history or not, named Georgia O’Keeffe. I occasionally received a Frida Kahlo but the response was overwhelmingly Georgia O’Keeffe. Her name is not well-recognized for nothing as she made historic strides in the visual art world as well as the political and feminist climate of her time and truly left an incredible mark on the world. 

Before this fame and recognition, however, she was an art student and subsequently an art teacher, as are many artists on their way to success. What most people do not know about her journey is where her first teaching job was and how it influenced her style of painting and more importantly, her mindset to create pieces that were so far from what she had been taught in art school. This first teaching job took place at Columbia College in our own Columbia, SC. Georgia started teaching at Columbia in 1915 at the age of 27.

Being on her own for the first time and fully relying on her artistic abilities, through the likes of teaching or her own commissions, allowed Georgia to explore artistic visions that had not been exercised during her time at neither the Art Institute School in Chicago nor the Art Students League where she learned her craft as a student. Georgia was able to experiment with charcoal and wide strokes, creating abstract paintings that stemmed far from the mainstream realism at the time in the art world. It was in Columbia where Georgia crafted the style of an up-close and abstract lens that we all know and love from her.

She found inspiration through long nature walks in our beautiful woods as well as local flora that were seldom seen in her hometown of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Georgia enjoyed cloud gazing and hikes down the Congaree river and many South Carolinian flowers can be seen as inspiration in her larger-than-life interpretations. 

Once she had completed her series of charcoal drawings she sent them to her good friend Anita Pollitzer in New York City. From there, Anita presented these drawings to famed photographer and art gallery owner, Alfred Stieglitz (who later became O’Keeffe’s husband). Stieglitz saw great potential in this young, daring, female artist and put her drawings on display in his next show at the 291 Gallery and thus her career took off.