In watching the 2012 Summer Olympics, I can't help but become more aware of my American nationality. In every event, I am confronted with a list of competitors who are identified solely by their name and country and being a visual person, I enjoy refreshing my memory of the various flag designs and color combinations. All this emphasis on countries, though, makes me think more about what it means exactly to be American. In one basic aspect, our nationality is determined by a piece of land. So to be American is to identify oneself with that vast expanse of land currently named, "The United States of America." Delineating borders and labelling areas of land, though, can seem quite arbitrary to me. How can this really unite a group of people?
Lately, I have been interested in Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings of bones and other objects she found within the desert landscape of her New Mexico home. The other day when visiting the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, I was on my way to one exhibit when on a whim, I decided to take a look at their exhibit featuring works by American artists from their permanent collection instead. Turning round one of the corners, I was pleasantly surprised to be confronted with O'Keeffe's Red Hills with White Shell :
Lately, I have been interested in Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings of bones and other objects she found within the desert landscape of her New Mexico home. The other day when visiting the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, I was on my way to one exhibit when on a whim, I decided to take a look at their exhibit featuring works by American artists from their permanent collection instead. Turning round one of the corners, I was pleasantly surprised to be confronted with O'Keeffe's Red Hills with White Shell :
I had just been viewing an image of this painting online the night before and was admiring her warm colors and graphic composition. What really draws me to several of her paintings are her close-up views of small objects and her clean edged shapes, and I enjoyed taking a close look at the smooth edges in person (and especially enjoyed the thick, creamy paint of the yellow bar on the horizon). Red Hills with White Shell provides this close-up view while also juxtaposing the shape against the land from which it came. I find a kinship in this desire to observe something closely and respond to one's immediate environment through depiction.
As I made my way through the exhibit, I began to see some connections between these pieces that were otherwise grouped together simply because their creators were all affiliated with the same geographic region. In addition to O'Keeffe's painting, several works spoke to me about various Americans' relationships to the land, including a giant hand bound book of James Audubon's bird illustrations, a Kachina doll, and a Gee's Bend quilt constructed from an assortment of worn blue jean pant legs. The "American" in the exhibition title began to become less an arbitrary reference to a group of people simply occupying the same geography and more a reference to a particular group of people influenced and shaped by a particular piece of land.
As I made my way through the exhibit, I began to see some connections between these pieces that were otherwise grouped together simply because their creators were all affiliated with the same geographic region. In addition to O'Keeffe's painting, several works spoke to me about various Americans' relationships to the land, including a giant hand bound book of James Audubon's bird illustrations, a Kachina doll, and a Gee's Bend quilt constructed from an assortment of worn blue jean pant legs. The "American" in the exhibition title began to become less an arbitrary reference to a group of people simply occupying the same geography and more a reference to a particular group of people influenced and shaped by a particular piece of land.
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