O'Keeffe and Me: A Treasured Friendship

by Ralph Looney

Looney newspaper writer, photographer, and editor developed a warm friendship with Georgia O'Keefe in 1962 that lasted for many years. His anecdotal narrative is supplemented with numerous b&w photos intimate portraits of the artist and her environment. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

121 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1995

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was cataloging and processing the photos of Looney for the museum I work for and came across this book. It is a short read and Looney was a newspaperman, so his writing is pretty quick to read. I thought his recollections were interesting and his impressions of O'Keeffe were also really interesting.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very humanizing look at GOK. She describes how she became so amazingly self-sufficient: "I'm certain I developed that in childhood. You know I was one of seven children. Each of us had his own circle of friends, his own little world. Each was self-sufficient and depended very little on the others."
Very excited to learn that in addition to her Lincoln Continental, she loved to camp out using her VW microbus as a sleeper on painting trips!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Georgia O’Keefe’s simplistic, sterile art has always made me look for more meaning in her paintings. O'Keefe and Me: A Treasured Friendship is a wonderful book to peruse at your leisure. A copulation of various artifacts from O’Keefe’s life scrap-booked together through a close friends eyes.

It almost feels like you are viewing O’Keefe’s personal journal. It shows another side of Georgia that I have never read about in past readings. We all know her as a remarkably independent woman but this shows her inner personality, which is also perceptive, delicate and tender.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

After living in New Mexico for a bit this year, I was so intrigued by Georgia O'Keefe's work and the land that inspired her, which prompted me to read this book. I enjoyed reading about O'Keefe's life and the friendship between her and author Ralph Looney, yet it was more focused on her later years and failed to present a rounded story of the artist as a whole. I would have enjoyed reading more about the artist's younger years as well. The gorgeous photos in the last part of the book were a plus. Overall, a quick and easy read.

[Dora · Rating 2 out of 5]

We all read different books about Georgia O'Keeffe for this book group meeting. Not something we've tried again, but it was interesting to do it once. Don't remember much about this book other than it was readable.