Nancy Hopkins Reily - Georgia OKeeffe, A Private Friendship, Part II: Walking the Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch Land

GEORGIA OKEEFFE
A Private Friendship

OTHER BOOKS
BY NANCY HOPKINS REILY

I Am At An Age, 1990, Best of East Texas Publishers, Lufkin, Texas

Joseph Imhof, Artist of the Pueblos, with Lucille Enix, 1998, Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Classic Outdoor Color Portraits, A Guide for Photographers,
2001, Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Georgia OKeeffe, A Private Friendship, Part I, Walking the Sun Prairie Land, 2007, Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico

AUTHORS NOTE:
All dimensions of art work are listed as height followed by width.
Spelling and punctuation in letters are left as is, only corrected for clarification.
Any variance in mileages depends on the individual odometer.

2009 by Nancy Hopkins Reily. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic
or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems
without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sunstone books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information please write: Special Markets Department, Sunstone Press,
P.O. Box 2321, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-2321.
Book design Vicki Ahl
Body typeface GoudyOlSt BT
Printed on acid free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Reily, Nancy Hopkins, 1934

Georgia Okeeffe, a private friendship / by Nancy Hopkins Reily.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-0-86534-451-8 (hardcover: alk. paper)

1. OKeeffe, Gerogia, 18871986. 2. PaintersUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

ND237.O5R45 2006

759.13dc22

2005037491

ISBN: 978-0-86534-452-5 (hardcover: alk. paper)

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DEDICATION

To my father, Robert Howell (Hal) Hopkins who used the talents his ancestors gave him. His efforts enabled me to recognize his values, to see behind all the glitter, to feel the pulse of my surroundings, and to make my adventures possible.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS/BLACK AND WHITE

Front cover: Georgia OKeeffe Reclining on Bench, Campfire Outing, Ghost Ranch, Near Abiquiu, New Mexico, ca. 1940

ILLUSTRATIONS / COLOR DUST JACKET

1 Santa Rosa de Lima de Abiquiu, 2003

2 Red Rocks

3 Cerro Pedernal

4 Rim Vista

5 Echo Amphitheater

6 Morada del Alto, 2003

7 Georgia OKeeffe Museum

Nancy Hopkins Reily at Abiquiu, New Mexico Sign

FOREWORD

Winfield Morten

In Georgia OKeeffe, A Private Friendship, Part II, Walking the Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch Land, I write of Georgias life when my family met her and afterwards.

To know Georgia in these later days is to chronicle the historical experiences of her times when she knew of the colorful beauty of the Texas and New Mexico plains.

As a young girl Georgia enjoyed the flat marshland of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. After her role-model mothers death in May 1916, Georgia combined her art with a teaching career. In late August of the same year she moved to Canyon, Texas, nestled in the middle of the Texas Panhandle. That October her sister, Claudia, moved to live with her. The sisters ventured to New Mexico for the first time in August 1917. Georgias instant love of New Mexico compelled her to return again and again to the expanses of earth and sky complete with dramatic lighting that further glorified the rich colors and sculpted outcroppings.

As a young boy my uncle, Winfield Morten, came from the black land prairie of Dallas, Texas, to New Mexico with his family about the same time as Georgia.

A mutual appreciation of the clear, pristine visual impressions of the New Mexico landscape drew Georgia OKeeffe as well as my aunt and uncle, Helen and Winfield, to an area where they were neighbors across the Chama River (Tewa for red river or here they have wrestled) at Abiquiu (Tewa for timber point).

Abiquiu is a tiny village forty-six miles north of Santa Fe (the site of the Georgia OKeeffe Museum) and five miles southeast of the ancient land known as Piedra Lumbre (Shining Stone), a one-hundred-square-mile high desert.

When I was a young girl, my parents, Pauline and Hal Hopkins, my mothers sister Aunt Helen and her husband Uncle Winfield, and their friends welcomed me into their social life because they easily accepted different generations. They expected me to conduct myself properly although they never instructed me. Their conversations and storytelling reverberated with gusto, but always with my presence in mind. They never told me to leave the room. I absorbed the stories with the clear, unencumbered insight of a young girl.

When Georgia joined our social life I also became a privileged participant. As the years passed, the stories of the times Georgia and my family functioned as a part of each others world percolated through my mind and memory. As others documented Georgias life, it became clear that these select, private stories of Georgia and my family were for me to tell.

Aiding in the telling of these stories were the mementoes and letters Georgia presented Aunt Helen and Uncle Winfield and the letters and snapshots my family saved, all carefully collected and placed in an envelope with Uncle Winfields slanted handwritten notation on the front: ImportantGeorgia OKeeffe. Eventually I acquired the envelope for safekeeping, with no instructions. Everyday mementoes filled the envelope: an invitation to the members preview at the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, on October 3, 1960, of Georgias retrospective exhibition, Georgia OKeeffe: Forty Years of Her Art; letters to Aunt Helen and Uncle Winfield; and snapshots of Georgia and my family.

The mementoes serve as a reminder of events worth remembering. These keepsakes, a vestige of the times, catalogue Georgias decisions. The letters, the usual method of communicating at that time, supply evidence of the high regard Georgia and my family had for each other as they dealt with small and personal matters. The snapshots provide proof of my familys and Georgias passion for life by recording the experiences of their friendship. These detailed snapshots occupy a proper and legitimate place as a record made by my family. Our snapshots also remind me of an ordinary but particular time. These little icons from a photographers darkroom dont compete for attention with fine art photography but do add dimension to the variety of Georgias life.