THE FLOWERS AND BONES OF GEORGIA O’KEEFFE: A RESEARCH-BASED DISSERTATION CULMINATING IN A FULL-LENGTH PLAY: DAYS WITH JUAN A dissertation submitted to the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Drew University in partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree, Doctor of Letters Renata Renee Kessler Drew University Madison, New Jersey May 2021 Copyright © 2021 Renata Renee Kessler All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The Flowers and Bones of Georgia O’Keeffe: A Research-Based Dissertation Culminating in a Full-Length Play: Days with Juan Doctor of Letters Dissertation by Renata Renee Kessler The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Drew University May 2021 Was Georgia O’Keeffe a nature mystic? The Flowers and Bones of Georgia O’Keeffe examines mystical philosophies prevalent during O’Keeffe’s development as an artist and their influence on her. The influence of mysticism is sought through the examination of selected flower and bone paintings by the modernist artist. I have viewed selected works through an ethnobotanical and anthropological lens, seeking depth and meaning in the artist’s work beyond the current interpretations which focus on gender, sexuality, and feminism. Through the prism of lotus, jimson flower, poppy, and sand dollar cactus, I have explored their importance to O’Keeffe, as well as the context of these plants in Eastern, Western, and Native American cultures in which she was interested. Ethnobotanical sources and intercultural seminars at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, were included in my research. In addition, a selection of tree portraits, representations of mystical writers the artist admired, are included. These portraits include The Lawrence Tree (D. H. Lawrence) and Gerald’s Tree I and II (Gerald Heard), as well as Chestnut Grey and Grey Tree, an old oak at Lake George, which was a landmark on the Stieglitz property where it is rumored O’Keeffe secretly buried Alfred Stieglitz’s ashes. An investigation of animal bones that O’Keeffe found in the desert, juxtaposed with flowers, clouds, and landscape painting, linked life and death—heaven and earth. Ghost Ranch in the high mountain desert of New Mexico became a source of energy and creativity for the artist, where many of her bone paintings were executed. Moving O’Keeffe’s artistic activity from the page to the stage in Days with Juan, a full-length play, explores her later years. Being a victim of macular degeneration, the artist loses much of her central vision. One can only imagine what a crisis this can be for an artist whose vision is critical to her painting. Her young assistant, Juan, opens up a new avenue for her creativity through clay, building a pottery for her at Ghost Ranch. Juan’s role of handyman, assistant, and friend keeps O’Keeffe going. The play explores O’Keeffe’s relationship to Juan, as well as her relationship to her own life and death in the context of her mystical beliefs. The characters in the play are composites of different people close to O’Keeffe. The play is strictly the writer’s interpretation; the point where O’Keeffe’s life intersects with the playwright’s. Therefore, it is a work of fiction based on research probing deeper truths about the artist. DEDICATION To George Tschurjumow, Artist, Master Sign Painter, 1948-2010, and my muse, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 2. NATURE .........................................................................................................10 3. ETHNOBOTANY/ETHNOZOOLOGY/MYSTICISM ..................................45 4. GETTING DOWN TO THE BONES..............................................................62 5. PLAYWRITING O’KEEFFE: THE WRITING PROCESS ...........................79 6. CONCLUSIONS..............................................................................................89 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................................92 APPENDIX A: ARTWORK BY O’KEEFFE AND OTHER ARTISTS CITED IN DISSERTATION ........................................................................................................101 APPENDIX B: LETTER BY GERONIMO GOMEZ, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH, TAOS, NEW MEXICO ..........................................105 DAYS WITH JUAN: A RESEARCH-BASED PLAY ...................................................106 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to the following people and institutions who have made this dissertation possible: Former Dean Robert Ready and my Dissertation Committee at Drew University, Rosemary McLaughlin and Kimberly Rhodes, for their instruction, advice, and patience through my years of research while I wrote multiple drafts of my play. Gratitude to the late Bruce Lancaster, who assisted me with research at Drew Library. Much is owed to John Pietrowski, director and playwriting instructor of the Writers Theatre, Madison, New Jersey, as well as fellow playwrights in my class. My colleague, playwright Vita Morales, helped me with play readings of my script, Days with Juan, soliciting student actors from County College of Morris’s Theatre Department. Thank you, Mitchell Torres and Johanna Adams, who read the roles of Juan and Georgia at West Orange Public Library. I would like to give special recognition for Katherine Rust and Sean Fowley from Centenary Stage in Hackettstown, New Jersey, and Esty Fersal who participated with Vita and Mitchell Torres in my play reading at Christ Church, Summit, New Jersey, October 18, 2020. Deepest gratitude to my friend from New Mexico, Carol Merrill, author of Weekends with O’Keeffe, who offered tireless encouragement of my endeavor. She was librarian at Ghost Ranch, where I attended a Native Wisdom Dialogue with Larry Rasmussen of Union Theological Seminary, Rina Swentzell, and Tessie Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo in 2015. Other participants in the conference have also been very important to this endeavor: Mindahi Bastida Munoz spoke to my class at County College of Morris, and his wife, Geraldine Patrick Encina, has become a source of inspiration and vi friendship. Thank you, Karen Butts, for your Ghost Ranch tours, and special acknowledgement to the hospitality of Christ in the Desert Monastery, Abiquiu, New Mexico where I attended a Sunday worship service as O’Keeffe did. Appreciation to the University of New Mexico for a tour of the D. H. Lawrence Ranch in San Cristobal, Taos County, New Mexico, to see the famous “Lawrence Tree” which O’Keeffe painted in 1929, and to the University of Nottingham where D. H. Lawrence studied. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Research Center in Santa Fe opened their resources to me, as did the Ghost Ranch Library. The Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe aided me in my investigation of some of the sacred plants that O’Keeffe painted. I acknowledge the Taos Pueblo for their tours and the ceremonies I attended with the family of the late Lorencita Lujan, who worked at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, providing insight and information that propelled the creation of this dissertation. The Drew Writing Center provided me with editorial help from Loren Kleinman, Max Orsini, Nazlin Shakir, and Maura Grace Harrington Logue. The Chairman of Foreign Languages and ESL Department at County College of Morris, James Hart, also provided his encouragement and grammatical expertise to this project. I gratefully acknowledge the encouragement of Father Lawrence Frizzell of Seton Hall University for his assistance with books and articles pertaining to my dissertation, as well as friendship and support of Chandler Cohen, coordinator of volunteers at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology where I tutor ESL to seminarians. Thank you to my friends Sarah Shapiro, Yolanda Merlotti, and Peggy Delgadillo for their encouragement and friendship throughout, and to my cousins, Arlene Gross Estrada and Anna Kessler Fiertag and family. vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION I have always been fascinated by the compelling art of modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), who inspired me to write a play about her life. She is known for her paintings of large flowers, skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O’Keeffe is often referred to as the “Mother of American modernism.” As a budding young artist, she was discovered by her mentor, and later husband, Alfred Stieglitz, a famous photographer and promoter of modern art. Initially my goal for this dissertation was to burst the commonly held myth of the perfect relationship between the iconic American modernist painter and the renowned photographer Stieglitz, but as my research evolved, my direction changed; my research led me toward exploration of how her relationship with nature manifests itself through her art. O’Keeffe was on a quest to express her own identity in art at a time when American art was establishing its own way, breaking away from European traditions.1 Modernism and nationalism often paralleled during this period. With the rise of victory gardens between the two world wars, gardening and horticulture became very popular in the early twentieth century.2 “Seeds for Victory” became a popular slogan when women were pursuing the vote. O’Keeffe’s exploration of flowers as a feminine life force empowered her, as well. 1 Wanda Corn, The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915-1935 (University of California