Georgia Ansell

Georgia O'Keeffe, Carmel, California, Ansel Adams, 1976

crystallizing your simpler clearer version of life—only to see it turn stale compared to what you vaguely feel ahead

I feel that a real living form is the result of the individual’s effort to create the living thing out of the adventure of his spirit into the unknown—where it has experienced something—felt something—it has not understood—and from that experience comes the desire to make the unknown—known. By unknown—I mean the thing that means so much to the person that wants to put it down—clarify something he feels but does not clearly understand—sometimes he partially knows why—sometimes he doesn’t—sometimes it is all working in the dark—but a working that must be done—Making the unknown—known—in terms of one’s medium is all-absorbing—if you stop to think of the form—as form you are lost—The artist’s form must be inevitable—You mustn’t even think you won’t succeed—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—catching crystallizing your simpler clearer version of life—only to see it turn stale compared to what you vaguely feel ahead—that you must always keep working to grasp—the form must take care of its self if you can keep your vision clear.

— Georgia O'Keeffe, in a letter that Georgia O’Keeffe wrote to her friend and fellow artist, Ansel Adams, in 1937 published in Georgia O’Keeffe: Art and Letters (New York Graphic Society, January 1, 1987) (via The Hammock Papers)

Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe at Yosemite, 1938.

Georgia 0’Keeffe in the Southwest

Photographed by Ansel Adams (1902-1984)

Gelatin silver print, 1937

Georgia O'Keeffe por Ansel Adams

Georgia O’Keeffe (November 15th, 1887- 1986) pictured at Yosemite, in 1938 Photographed by Ansel Adams

O’Keeffe at Yosemite, 1938. Ansel Adams.

Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox, 

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona 1937 

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams (American, 1902–-1984). Georgia O’’Keeffe and Orville Cox, 1937. Gelatin silver print, 7¾ x 11 in. 

Ansel Adams (American 1902-1984), Georgia O’Keeffe and park guide Orville Cox near Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, 1937, Gelatin silver print

David Lancaster Photos

 Morada in Exile #2 Santa Fe, Ansel, Ghost Ranch New Mexico, Georgia O'Keeffe, SouthWest

Paul on Linda’s influences  and her connection to art and music

CCP students: Which artists from the 1960s had the most profound impact on Linda’s photography?

Paul: I’m not sure it was artists from the 1960s, but before that Dorothea Lange was a favourite of hers. Linda’s tastes were formed by looking at artists like Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe – she was a big admirer of O’Keeffe. Growing up she knew Willem de Kooning as her dad was his lawyer, so there was a family connection.

Of course, she had studied History of Art in Tucson, although she confided in me that in those classes it was often a typically hot Tucson afternoon and they’d be in a little dark room watching a projection, so sometimes she might nod off. I imagine current students might relate to that, too!

But anyway, Linda had a pretty wide knowledge of art. That was one of the things we both had in common when we first met. I was enjoying people like Magritte, which impressed her. One of my big show-off moments was asking, ‘Have you seen my Magritte?’

CCP students: How did Linda come to photograph the musical artists of the 1960s? Did Linda find it easy or difficult interacting with such a diverse group?

Paul: It was easy for her because she loved music, therefore she knew their music. She didn’t just show up and go, ‘Oh, what kind of music do you play?’ She’d heard their music and maybe even seen them live before, whereas a lot of other people wouldn’t be interested. From an early age growing up in New York, she was in the era of the doo-wop groups. She was very knowledgeable about that. I remember her talking to Paul Simon who was also a New York kid from that era, and they knew all the little groups that we didn’t get over in the UK. Linda could hang out with Jimi Hendrix and he would be impressed that she knew who B.B. King was. That made things easier on the music scene. She knew what was going on!

CCP students: How did Linda’s parents influence her decision to pursue photography?

Paul: Her family had a love of art, and there was a lot of art in her life from a young age. Her grandpa had come over as an immigrant from Russia and he was a bit of a painter. There was this family story that her dad Lee had a picture by her grandad up on the wall and a famous art connoisseur friend of his said, ‘I’d like to buy that, who’s it by?’ And he replied, ‘It’s by my dad and it’s not for sale!’

Anyway, the point I’m making is that art was always there. Her dad was a big collector of very good art and ended up being a lawyer to quite a few artists like Robert Motherwell and Willem de Kooning, so there were always great pictures around. I think that was a big influence. Then going to college in Tucson and taking the Art History classes.

Emphasis mine, from “Paul McCartney answers student questions” Feb. 27, 2023 x

WHO WAS GOING TO TELL ME THAT

the guy who plays tony in west side story (2021)

(ansel elgort)

SINGS THE SONG SUPERNOVA

the one that goes

I met you in California You told me you loved him in Georgia

Your heart's in the ground, frozen over

My heart's in the sky, supernova

Does art make a difference?

Aw, sure. Of course there are degrees of extremity to the potential change that art can effect, depending on how many people are able to engage with it. The Beatles made a huge difference in the world. But Henry Darger, Jeff McKissack, Karen Dalton, Pauline Oliveros, Kenneth Patchen – there are so many folks who have made great art and not gotten massively famous for it, yet I think there are all sorts of ways their work informs and shapes other people’s work, and brains, and decisions.

Should politics and art mix?

Well, everything mixes, the New Statesman! That’s like asking if a knee-reflex hammer and a quadriceps tendon should “mix”.

Is your work for the many or for the few?

That’s for the many/few to say. I just crank out the hot jams.

If you were world leader, what would be your first law?

Gravity. I feel like we need to tighten up the constitutional protections that particular law enjoys. It’s a ticking time bomb, if you ask me.

Who would be your top advisers?

Cute angel on one shoulder, cute devil on the other.

What, if anything, would you censor?

Maybe we could all agree to not bust each other’s chops all cut-dang day.

If you had to banish one public figure, who would it be?

Don’t know, banishment might be a little extreme, but I’d sure like to take that Stephen Hawking dude down a notch or two. Right? Are you with me?

What are the rules that you live by?

Basically, “bros before hos”. I feel like if you stay true to that, everything else just kind of falls into place.

Do you love your country?

I love William Faulkner, Dolly Parton, fried chicken, Van Dyke Parks, the Grand Canyon, Topanga Canyon, bacon cheeseburgers with horseradish, Georgia O’Keeffe, Grand Ole Opry, Gary Snyder, Gilda Radner, Radio City Music Hall, Big Sur, Ponderosa pines, Southern BBQ, Highway One, Kris Kristofferson, National Arts Club in New York, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Ernest Hemingway, Harriet Tubman, Hearst Castle, Ansel Adams, Kenneth Jay Lane, Yuba River, South Yuba River Citizens League, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, “Hired Hand”, “The Jerk”, “The Sting”, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, clambakes, lobster rolls, s’mores, camping in the Sierra Nevadas, land sailing in the Nevada desert, riding horseback in Canyon de Chelly; Walker Percy, Billie Holiday, Drag City, Chez Panisse/Alice Waters/slow food movement, David Crosby, Ralph Lauren,San Francisco Tape Music Center, Albert Brooks, Utah Phillips, Carol Moseley Braun, Bolinas CA, Ashland OR, Lawrence KS, Austin TX, Bainbridge Island WA, Marilyn Monroe, Mills College, Elizabeth Cotton, Carl Sandburg, the Orange Show in Houston, Toni Morrison, Texas Gladden, California College of Ayurvedic Medicine, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Saturday Night Live, Aaron Copland, Barack Obama, Oscar de la Renta, Alan Lomax, Joyce Carol Oates, Fred Neil, Henry Cowell, Barneys New York, Golden Gate Park, Musee Mechanique, Woody Guthrie, Maxfield Parrish, Malibu, Maui, Napa Valley, Terry Riley, drive-in movies, homemade blackberry ice cream from blackberries picked on my property, Lil Wayne, Walt Whitman, Halston, Lavender Ridge Grenache from Lodi CA, Tony Duquette, Julia Morgan, Lotta Crabtree, Empire Mine, North Columbia Schoolhouse, Disneyland, Nevada County Grandmothers for Peace; Roberta Flack, Randy Newman, Mark Helprin, Larry David, Prince; cooking on Thanksgiving; Shel Siverstein, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Radziwill, Jackie Onassis, E.B. White, William Carlos Williams, Jay Z, Ralph Stanley, Allen Ginsberg, Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, RFK, Rosa Parks, Arthur Miller, “The Simpsons”, Julia Child, Henry Miller, Arthur Ashe, Anne Bancroft, The Farm Midwifery Center in TN, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Clark Gable, Harry Nilsson, Woodstock, and some other stuff. Buuuut, the ol’ U S of A can pull some pretty dick moves. I’m hoping it’ll all come out in the wash...

Are we all doomed?

If we keep our expectations pretty low I think we might be fine. I mean, we’re definitely all dying at some point. There’s no getting around that. But between now and then, things might start looking up!

— Joanna Newsom for The New Statesman, 2008

The centerpiece of Ranchos de Taos is the San Francisco de Asís church, a beautiful example of Spanish Colonial architecture. Completed in 1815, construction on the formidable adobe edifice began in 1772. The church doubled as a temple of worship and a formidable fortress. It has served as a compelling muse for countless artists and photographers over the years, including Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams.