Sitting With Georgia

A photo my mom took of my looking up at Sky Above Clouds IV.

Looking towards the painting from the top of the stairs.

“It’s been 26 years since I met Georgia, and she started teaching me about the unexpected. Unexpected beauty, curiosity, expectations of what is possible, and the courage to do and be. It feels wonderful to sit with my friend again.”

I wrote that in late October 2025 at the Art Institute of Chicago when my mother and I took a quick trip to Chicago. We had lived there for about a year when I was five years old, and in that year, my parents made sure to take advantage of all that Chicago had to offer, especially the museums. I still have the vivid memory of going to the Art Institute of Chicago and meeting Georgia O’Keeffe for the first time. I was blown away by her very large painting, Sky Above Clouds IV. As a small five-year-old old I could not understand how a painting could be that large, nor how there could be one so big depicting only clouds. This painting sparked an instant connection for me with Georgia, and she quickly became my favorite artist. This painting and this moment have stuck with me ever since. I am grateful both to have met Georgia and to have had the chance to say hi to this painting again.

Photo of Sky Above Clouds IV at the Chicago Art Institute taken with a Minolta X-700 film camera.