ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation / Thesis: “LIVING ON PAPER ...

Today the photographs were here when I came in at noon – and I am
speechless.
What can I say - ? You must just say it yourself. 137
Once she had created the works, O’Keeffe seemed to say, she was resigned that they
should move into Stieglitz’s sphere. In fact, however, the artist never ceased to care
about her works and to respond when she disapproved of Stieglitz’s actions as guardian
of her creations.
O’Keeffe’s Arrival in Texas
Despite the rise of O’Keeffe’s star at 291, she had not yet sold a single one of her
new art works. Economic necessity dictated that she continue to support herself by
teaching. Therefore, at the end of the summer of 1916, O’Keeffe moved to the small
Texas panhandle town of Canyon where she would be the sole art teacher at West Texas
State Normal College until 1918. 138
Her years in Texas proved to be a period of growth
during which she matured as both a watercolorist and a modernist. In 1917, while
O’Keeffe was dividing her time between depicting the Texas landscape and teaching,
back in New York Stieglitz mounted her first solo exhibition, which would turn out to be
the last exhibition at 291. For Stieglitz, an era was coming to an end, but O’Keeffe’s
career was just beginning.
In Texas, O’Keeffe continued to use many of the artistic practices she had worked
out during her previous months in South Carolina and Virginia. As before, she split her
time between teaching and making art. Her attention likewise remained divided between
her own activities and the events in far off New York that she followed by reading
periodicals and corresponding with Pollitzer, Stieglitz, and other friends. O’Keeffe must
have remained acutely aware that the best of her art could expect to find a place on the
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