Georgia Totto O’Keeffe was an American artist who has been recognized as the “Mother of American modernism”. She was an American painter, best known for her large-format paintings of natural forms, especially flowers and bones, and for her depictions of New York City skyscrapers and architectural and landscape forms unique to northern New Mexico. Inspirational Georgia O’Keeffe quotes will give you a little empowerment to get you through anything when the going gets tough and help you succeed in every aspect of life.
If you’re searching for inspiring art quotes by famous artists that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of memorable Vincent Van Gogh quotes, powerful Frida Kahlo quotes, and beautiful Leonardo Da Vinci quotes.
Most Famous Georgia O’Keeffe Quotes
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way things I had no words for. Georgia O’Keeffe
It’s not enough to be nice in life. You’ve got to have nerve. Georgia O’Keeffe
When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not. Georgia O’Keeffe
I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do. Georgia O’Keefe
I don’t very much enjoy looking at paintings in general. I know too much about them. I take them apart. Georgia O’Keeffe
Nobody sees a flower really it is so small it takes time we haven’t time and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. Georgia O’Keeffe
I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at not copy it. Georgia O’Keeffe
I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free. Georgia O’Keefe
You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare. Georgia O’Keeffe
Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing and keeping the unknown always beyond you. Georgia O’Keefe
It was all so far away there was quiet and an untouched feel to the country and I could work as I pleased. Georgia O’Keeffe
If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment. Georgia O’Keefe
Sun bleached bones were most wonderful against the blue that blue that will always be there as it is now after all man’s destruction is finished. Georgia O’Keeffe
I think it’s so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary you’re happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous. Georgia O’Keefe
One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt. Georgia O’Keeffe
Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest. Georgia O’Keeffe
I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. Georgia O’Keeffe
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way things I had no words for. Georgia O’Keeffe
To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage. Georgia O’Keeffe
I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then. Georgia O’Keeffe
I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could. Georgia O’Keeffe
I have things in my head that are not like what anyone taught me shapes and ideas so near to me, so natural to my way of being and thinking. Georgia O’Keeffe
I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me shapes and ideas so near to m so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down. Georgia O’Keeffe
Marks on paper are free free speech press pictures all go together I suppose. Georgia O’Keeffe
You are one of my nicest thoughts. Georgia O’Keeffe
It was in the 1920s, when nobody had time to reflect, that I saw a still life painting with a flower that was perfectly exquisite, but so small you really could not appreciate it. Georgia O’Keeffe
I can’t live where I want to, I can’t go where I want to go, I can’t do what I want to, I can’t even say what I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to. Georgia O’Keeffe
I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint. Georgia O’Keeffe
My first memory is of light the brightness of light light all around. Georgia O’Keefe
I believe I would rather have Stieglitz like something anything I had done than anyone else I know. Georgia O’Keeffe
I decided to accept as true my own thinking. Georgia O’Keefe
I often lay on that bench looking up into the tree, past the trunk and up into the branches. It was particularly fine at night with the stars above the tree. Georgia O’Keeffe
I’m frightened all the time. But I never let it stop me. Never! Georgia O’Keeffe
Anyone who doesn’t feel the crosses simply doesn’t get that country. Georgia O’Keeffe
Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things. Georgia O’Keeffe
I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty. Georgia O’Keeffe
Someone else’s vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it cause in the end it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself. Georgia O’Keeffe
Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time. Georgia O’Keeffe
I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me shapes and ideas so near to me so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down. I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught. Georgia O’Keeffe
I hate flowers I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move. Georgia O’Keeffe
The morning is the best time, there are no people around. My pleasant disposition likes the world with nobody in it. Georgia O’Keeffe
I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught. Georgia O’Keeffe
The unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel the world is big fat beyond my understanding to understand maybe by trying to put it into form. To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill. Georgia O’Keeffe
I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore. Georgia O’Keeffe
I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. Georgia O’Keeffe
I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me shapes and ideas so near to me so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down. Georgia O’Keeffe
When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. Georgia O’Keeffe
The days you work are the best days. Georgia O’Keeffe
One cannot be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work. Georgia O’Keeffe
Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. It is so spontaneous. And after singing, I think the violin. Since I cannot sing, I paint. Georgia O’Keeffe
I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could. Georgia O’Keeffe
I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. Georgia O’Keeffe
I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way things I had no words for. Georgia O’Keeffe
The days you work are the best days. Georgia O’Keeffe
I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore. Georgia O’Keeffe
It’s not enough to be nice in life. You’ve got to have nerve. Georgia O’Keeffe
I said to myself I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me shapes and idea so near to my so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down. I decided to start anew to strip away what I had been taught. Georgia O’Keeffe
Someone else’s vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it cause in the end it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself. Georgia O’Keeffe
I got half a dozen paintings from that shattered plate. Georgia O’Keeffe
It is only by selection, by elimination, and by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things. Georgia O’Keeffe
When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Georgia O’Keeffe
Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous. Georgia O’Keeffe
I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to. I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way things I had no words for. Georgia O’Keeffe
It seems I would rather feel starkly empty than let any thing be planted that cannot be tended to the fullest possibility of its growth. Georgia O’Keeffe
I’m getting to like you so tremendously that it sometimes scares me. Georgia O’Keeffe
I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint. Georgia O’Keeffe
When I look over the photographs Stieglitz took of me some of them more than sixty years ago I wonder who that person is. It is as if in my one life I have lived many lives. If the person in the photographs were living in this world today, she would be quite a different person but it doesn’t matter Stieglitz photographed her then. Georgia O’Keeffe
I have lived on a razor’s edge. So what if you fall off I’d rather be doing something I really wanted to do. I’d walk it again. Georgia O’Keeffe
I wish so much to go that I almost wish I had never been there. Georgia O’Keeffe
It seems to me very important to the idea of true democracy to my country and to the world eventually that all men and women stand equal under the sky. Georgia O’Keeffe
Come quickly. You mustn’t miss the dawn. It will never be just like this again. Georgia O’Keeffe
I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then. Georgia O’Keeffe
It is only by selection, by elimination, and by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things. Georgia O’Keeffe
My friend Doris Bry says now that I’ve ruined her spelling because I misspell with such confidence. Georgia O’Keeffe
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way things I had no words for. Georgia O’Keeffe
Marks on paper are free free speech press pictures all go together I suppose. Georgia O’Keeffe
I do not like the idea of happyness it is too momentary I would say that I was always busy and interested in something interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happyness. Georgia O’Keeffe
I wish so much to go that I almost wish I had never been there. Georgia O’Keeffe
The skulls were there and I could say something with them. To me they are as beautiful as anything I know. To me they are strangely more living than the animals walking around hair, eyes and all, with the tails switching. The bones seem to cut sharply to the center of something that is keenly alive on the desert even though it is vast and empty and untouchable and knows no kindness with all its beauty. Georgia O’Keeffe
It’s my private mountain. It belongs to me. God told me if I painted that mountain enough, I could have it. Georgia O’Keeffe
You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare. Georgia O’Keeffe
To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage. Georgia O’Keeffe
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way things I had no words for. Georgia O’Keeffe
I got half a dozen paintings from that shattered plate. Georgia O’Keeffe
I am divided between my man and a life with him and some thing of the outdoors of your world that is in my blood and that I know I will never get rid of I have to get along with my divided self the best way I can. Georgia O’Keeffe
One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt. Georgia O’Keeffe
I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again. Georgia O’Keeffe
Filling a space in a beautiful way that is what art means to me. Georgia O’Keeffe
Frieda was very special, O’Keeffe recalls. I can remember very clearly the first time I ever saw her, standing in a doorway, with her hair all frizzed out, wearing a cheap red calico dress that looked as though she’d just wiped out the frying pan with it. She was not thin, and not young, but there was something radiant and wonderful about her. Georgia O’Keeffe
I have painted portraits that to me are almost photographic. I remember hesitating to show the paintings, they looked so real to me. Georgia O’Keeffe
Living out here has just meant happiness. Sometimes I think I’m half-mad with love for this place. Georgia O’Keeffe
Artists and religionists are never far apart, they go to the sources of revelation for what they choose to experience and what they report is the degree of their experiences. Georgia O’Keeffe
Someone else’s vision will never be as good as you own vision of yourself. Live and die with it, because in the end, that’s all you have. Lose it and lose yourself and everything else. Georgia O’Keeffe
I had it in my head, well, I couldn’t have been 12, that I was going to be a painter. Georgia O’Keeffe
As one chooses between the country and the human being, the country becomes much more wonderful. Georgia O’Keeffe
