Hi, I’m Grace.
Abstract art is my state of mind. It is a visual experience and conversation that can be compromised with words. I prefer to let viewers open their minds, hearts and emotions to what they see and feel in my paintings.
Abstract art is my state of mind. It is a visual experience and conversation that can be compromised with words. I prefer to let viewers open their minds, hearts and emotions to what they see and feel in my paintings.
As a visual and experimental artist, I always look for a unique perspective on a subject matter. After reading just a few pages of their Love Letters in the book: “My Far Away One” Written by Sarah Greenough, I was hooked. Serendipitously, I discovered the treasure trove was scanned and archived at Yale University-Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. I had to see for myself what the letters looked like.
Once I saw the letters written in their own cursive handwriting, curves, lines, marks, symbols, and words, flowing from their fountain pens, I had my ‘aha’ moment. It needed to be an immersive and interactive experience. I designed, created, and installed this multifaceted installation composed of several thousand “love letters” and correspondence written between O’Keeffe and Stieglitz 1915-1946.
The installation featured letters and envelopes printed on vintage looking paper, in a 20’ x 20’ room furnished in a style reminiscent of 1915-1946. One half of the room was devoted to O’Keeffe’s first home in Ghost Ranch, NM, the other side based on Stieglitz family estate in Lake George, NY.
I created a multisensory experience: music that O’Keeffe and Stieglitz listened to based on what I found in the letters; I chose an artist friend with a slight New York accent to ‘read letters’ Stiglitz wrote to O’Keeffe as I recorded him. I then recorded myself reading selected letters that O’Keeffe wrote to Stieglitz. The recordings and music gave the ‘room’ a sense of being alive with their spirits. I used lemon oil to polish the antique furniture which created an aroma. I arranged their handwritten letters to hang layers deep from the ceiling, walls and a 12-foot diameter cascade in the center of the room so people could literally be immersed and read the letters up close and personal. The envelopes enabled viewers to see the multiple addresses of O’Keeffe over the years and her travels.
Most notably what intrigued me most was the figurative scribbles and code between the two of them. I feel both O’Keeffe and Stieglitz were profound visionaries of their time. Stieglitz as publisher, of Camera Works, a photographer, (worked tirelessly to get photography, specifically his derivatives (abstract photos of clouds) accepted as an art form (Boston Museum of Fine Art, 1926). O’Keeffe as a feminist, teacher, and artist, helping all future artists to ‘change their perspective’ as she did, viewing life through holes in stone and bones to create her magical paintings.
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