Special Drawing Number 8

Georgia O’keefe

While cubism swept America and predominantly male artists found sacred abstraction in harsh, geometric forms, Georgia O’Keefe was looking elsewhere. A pioneer of the abstract American painting, she was not interested in the rigorous, almost mathematical deconstruction of the European schools that found its abstraction through an imposed distance from the natural seen world. Instead, she looked directly to nature, finding beauty and inspiration in the organic forms that surrounded her and the rhythms of the living world. She began a series of charcoal drawings that tried to place the images she found in her subconscious, forms that for her were perhaps a part of the universal psyche but difficult to access. They are grasps towards the unknown, ways to capture a feeling of existence by isolating the movement of nature, and she returned, over the course of her career to the spiral. Seen here in fleshy monotone, it speaks at once to life and death, a dark void that moves downwards until it finds the centre and here, experiences rebirth.

Saturday 19th September

The Moon moves from the watery constellation of Scorpio into the fiery constellation of Sagittarius, shifting our attention from leafy growth towards fruits and seeds. Having passed the half Moon, its illuminated face continues to grow as we journey towards the full Moon. Today it also reaches apogee, the point in its orbit furthest from the Earth, reminding us of the changing rhythm of closeness and distance in the skies above. In the garden, gather ripe tomatoes, pick the remaining tender beans and harvest squash whose skins have hardened, allowing those still ripening a little longer where conditions permit. As crops finish, clear their remains for compost and prepare the beds for winter greens or a suitable autumn cover crop. This is a season of gathering in and looking ahead, nourishing ourselves from the summer’s abundance while caring for the soil that will support the next cycle of growth.