Dear Miss O'Keefe [sic]—

I have wanted to tell you how much enjoyment I have gotten from a magazine reproduction of your painting “Bindweed” which appeared in a womans [sic] publication some time in the 1930's. I framed it and hung it at the foot of my bed, so that it is the first thing I see when I open my eyes every morning…. I have been half-blind since the age of 10, and can't even find my glasses without my glasses, but your lovely flower, so full of faith and tenacity and hope and courage—this I can see. (July 1968)1

In the introduction to a 1992 collection of essays about Georgia O'Keeffe as an icon, Christopher Merrill claims that as “one of the most photographed figures of our time,” O'Keeffe is “an intellectual pinup girl of sorts.”2 By modifying pinup with the adjective...

You do not currently have access to this content.