“a breath that draws your breath into its breathing”
Three women of the 20th century, Emily Carr, Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo were strong willed and uncompromising artists. All 3 were North Americans, each drawn to expressing her unique personal relationship to her world. They are universally considered iconic women artists.
The art of Carr, O’Keefe and Kahlo is insightful in many ways for quilt artists. In this post you find a notable quotation by each woman and two well known pieces of her art. Compare and be inspired: the WWW has many other images of their artwork on various sites.
Emily Carr captured scenes from the lives and rituals of Native Americans and the Canadian landscape. “The Subject means little. The arrangement, the design, colour, shape, depth, light, space, mood, movement, balance, not one or all of these fills the bill. There is something additional, a breath that draws your breath into its breathing, a heartbeat that pounds on yours, a recognition of the oneness of all things.” (1871-1945)
 Indian Church, 1929 |
 Tree Trunk, 1935 |
Georgia O’Keefe’s stubbornly personal art is a synthesis of abstraction and realism.
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way- things I had not words for.” 1887-1986
 Jimson Weed, 1932 |
 Church Steeple |
“I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.” Frida Kahlo, 1907-1954 – Kahlo’s life was tumultuous. She was tormented by pain, physically as a result of a serious bus accident and in her relationship with Diego Rivera, her husband.
 Self Portrait with Monkeys |
 The Love Embrace of the Universe |