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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, Some Memories of Drawings

Art

Why it matters

The idea in context

In 1915, teaching in a small college in South Carolina, O'Keeffe decided that everything she had been trained to do was somebody else's language. She put the paintings away, spread paper on the floor and worked in charcoal until the shapes were hers. A friend showed the drawings to the photographer Alfred Stieglitz in New York without asking her. He exhibited them; she travelled up to complain, and stayed.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

Renklerle ve biçimlerle, başka türlü söyleyemediğim şeyleri söyleyebildiğimi fark ettim — hiç kelimesi olmayan şeyleri.
Georgia O'Keeffe, Çizimlerden Bazı Anılar

1915'te Güney Carolina'da küçük bir kolejde ders verirken O'Keeffe, öğrendiği her şeyin başkasının dili olduğuna karar verdi. Tabloları kaldırdı, kâğıtları yere serdi ve biçimler kendisinin olana kadar kömür kalemle çalıştı. Bir arkadaşı çizimleri, ona sormadan New York'ta fotoğrafçı Alfred Stieglitz'e gösterdi. Stieglitz onları sergiledi; O'Keeffe şikâyet etmek için şehre gitti ve orada kaldı.

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Background reading: Georgia O'KeeffeAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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