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I know I cannot paint a flower. I can not paint the sun on the desert on a bright summer morning but maybe in terms of paint color I can convey to you my experience of the flower or the experience that makes the flower of significance to me at that particular time.

— Georgia O'Keeffe letter to William Milliken (1930)

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More quotes by Georgia O'Keeffe

I hate flowers — I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move!

Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. Since I cannot sing, I paint.

Artists and religionists are never far apart, they go to the sources of revelation for what they choose to experience and what they report is the degree of their experiences. Intellect wishes to arrange — intuition wishes to accept.

The Second Outline in Portraiture (1936)

I don't really know where I got my artists idea. The scraps of what I remember do not explain to me where it came from. I only know that by this time [her eight grade's year] it was definitely settled in my mind.

Some Memories of Drawings (1976)

I do not like the idea of happiness — it is too momentary — I would say that I was always busy and interested in something — interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happiness.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Georgia O'Keeffe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.