Poets Salon: Inner O’Keeffe

POETS SALON

– 5/22/19

Hosted by Kath Abela Wilson

Once she found it, she knew it was always. The pink stem of paradise was not a dream. She followed it home, where time turned into forever.

I slip into her body
words turn
into paint

~ Kath Abela

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The Path Less Taken, painting by Leia Morning

Leia Morning

I struggled for many years before completing my script of Georgia O’Keeffe. When I was young, I thought her terribly self-centered and thus did not like her. As I matured, I realized that her solitude and self-involvement was necessary for her to accomplish what she accomplished. Once I accepted that, I could develop her as a character. In my performances she speaks through me:

I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.

Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.

I have lived on a razor’s edge. So what if you fall off. I’d rather be doing something I really wanted to do. I’d walk it again.

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Hills and trees, inspired by Georgia O’Keefe- Painting by Susan Delphine Delaney

Iliyana Stoyanova

hazy afternoon
the snake-like pattern
of a glistening road

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Photo and leaf in vase from Georgia O’Keeffe Museum by Susan Delphine Delaney

Susan Delphine Delaney

red hills
covered with juniper
Georgia on my mind

Abiquiu autumn
the goldenrod sings a duet
with the cottonwood

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New Mexico Sky (Photo – Barbara Tate)

Barbara Tate

ghost moon
painting the aroma
of pistils and stamens
her dreamworld larger
than life

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My inner O’Keeffe (Photo – Christopher J Wesley)

Christoper J Wesley

Channeling my inner
Georgia O’Keeffe by way of
Abstract Expressionist Photography
#2 of a six-photo series
taken from a table centerpiece of flowers

Leia Morning performing Georgia O’Keefe at Arbor Academy of Art (Photo – Robert Stewart)

Inner O’Keeffe: Quotes and Credits

Leia Morning has written -and currently performs- several one-woman productions, portraying over twenty-five different women including Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sojourner Truth, Emily Dickinson, Charlotte Bronte, and Mae West. Georgia O’Keeffe is one of three artists featured in Leia Morning’s production Wedded to the Brush which premiered in 2012; O’Keeffe was also featured in Morning’s earlier Hearing the Call: Women of Inspiration and Vision. Her productions have been seen throughout California in theatres, universities, secondary schools, clubs, museums, and libraries, including the Huntington Library, Crocker Art Gallery, and Sierra Madre Playhouse, and recently, at the Arbor Academy of Art in Pasadena.
Leia received her master’s and doctor’s degrees in Early Music from Stanford University and her Bachelor of Music degree from USC. She has been the recipient of numerous grants, including a Fulbright grant, two NEH grants, a Toyota International Teacher grant, and a TAAP grant. She has trained in commedia del Arte, Kyogen, and Noh theatre traditions as well as in traditional western theatre.

Iliyana Stoyanova says: “How did Georgia O’Keeffe enter my world? First a documentary about her incredible life, her talent and passion for life, her power to break rules and then to restore them. Then in 2016 attending Tate Modern’s exhibition marking 100 years since her work was first showcased in 1916 by her husband – photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz. Is it easy to fall in love with Georgia’s art, is it easy to fall in love with anyone? The answer is hidden in each and everyone of her paintings, in her photographs, in her eyes – endless horizons, glistening roads to new universes, hidden in velvety flowers, chalky skulls and powerful suggestions of a secret world. Shapes, ideas and colours beyond any limitations.”
Iliyana Stoyanova lives in England. She has a PhD in Theology. She is the Living Legacies Editor at the Living Haiku Anthology, Communications Officer and BHS Awards Administrator at the British Haiku Society, Secretary of the United Haiku and Tanka Society, and also a member of Haiku Club-Plovdiv, The London Haiku Group and Tanka Society of America. Her first book Ostrovityansko Haiku (Shimajin Haiku) was published in Bulgaria in 2010. Her haiku and other poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, and won several international awards. Iliyana enjoys photography, watercolour painting, travelling, and reading.

Susan Delphine Delaney has long been an admirer of Georgia O’Keefe and visits her museum every time she is in Santa Fe for an Education Meeting. She bought a tiny vase at the Museum Store there and loves filling it with flowers. Even when traveling she keeps it with her to feel at home.
Susan Delphine Delaney MD MS is a psychiatrist living in Plano Texas. She has been writing haiku for 50 years. She has an Etsy shop, SusanDolphinDelaney where she sells jewelry for busy women.

Barbara Tate says: “I saw a photo of her at Ghost Ranch with a moon in the daytime sky. Roxana Robinson wrote in a biography “Georgia O’Keeffe, A Life”, a line that stated “Georgia cultivated her independence”. An insight into the artist and the rugged landscape of the land she loved, New Mexico. Wild and free. Both must be taken on their own terms. Her paintings larger than life and New Mexico even larger. It’s no wonder my heart remains in New Mexico.”
Barbara Tate is an award winning artist and writer of Native American descent. She is a member of the Haiku Society of America, the British Haiku Society, Haiku Canada and past President of the Tri-County Society of Fine Art in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. She currently resides in Winchester, TN.

Christoper J Wesley says: “Channeling my inner Georgia O’Keeffe by way of Abstract Expressionist Photography. In addition to #2 of a six-photo series taken from a table centerpiece of flowers.” Living in Altadena, California, he is a prolific poet, writer, musician and artist on a “journey of the heart”. You may see his work in galleries, bookstores, and wherever your heart is wandering. He creates art that investigates the ways we connect with each other and the world around us.

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♣ We welcome and encourage your response, especially in the form of a short poem, by leaving a comment below.

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