Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV 1930

Georgia O'Keeffe created this painting of a Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower with oil on canvas. The painting surges forth with its rich, velvety blacks and greens. I imagine O’Keeffe in her studio, maybe feeling a bit like she's wrestling with the flower itself. Doesn't it seem like she's pushing paint around, trying to capture not just what she sees, but what she *feels*? The texture seems smooth and kind of dreamy. I see this long, light shape right in the center that almost looks like it’s glowing, surrounded by these dark, mysterious petals. It’s a gesture of opening, revealing, like a secret whispered in the dark. O'Keeffe was always playing with seeing, making you look again, past the easy answer. Her painting is like a long conversation between artists and ways of seeing that keeps evolving, and stays fresh.