Review by Booklist Review
K-Gr. 3. Creating a picture-book biography of Georgia O'Keeffe is a daunting project. Beyond the challenge of interpreting O'Keeffe's artwork, Jeanette Winter's My Name Is Georgia0 (1998), which used a first-person narrative representing the artist's voice, set a high standard for both art and text. Addressing the same audience, Rodriguez finds her own distinctive way, telling O'Keeffe's story in third person but with great immediacy, using present tense and sentences that are short, direct, and poetic. After describing O'Keeffe's childhood, her goal of becoming an artist, her move from the city to New Mexico, and her bond with the land there, the author invites readers to let the artist "show you the world as she sees it." The final page expands on the story to give a more standard, detailed account of the artist's life. Paschkis creates vivid illustrations by using painted and cut papers to form collages representing the artist, her world, and her work. These illustrations vary in palette and composition as the setting changes from the Wisconsin countryside to the New York cityscape to the hills and deserts of the Southwest. O'Keefe grows up and grows old, but her satisfaction in expressing herself through her art is constant. Written and illustrated with directness and sensitivity, this is a fresh, original portrait of the artist. --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Newcomer Rodríguez evokes the magic of O'Keeffe's interior world with a spare, lyrical narrative: "Everywhere she looks, shapes hum and sing to her.... Paint speaks for her. Watercolor and oil are her words." Paschkis (Bottle Houses) recreates the feel of O'Keeffe's work but with her own style; she uses collages made of painted cut paper in gentle gradations of blues and bleached reds, and simulates several well-known images of the subject's work, including the stark landscapes that became O'Keeffe's trademark. Rodríguez says little about the artist's later life and growing fame, and the volume includes no reproductions of the paintings or photographs of the painter. Instead, the author concentrates on O'Keeffe's unconventional childhood ("But in 1899 only boys become artists. A girl wishing to become one is scandalous"), and on conjuring up the inner life of the artist. What emerges is a portrait of the flowering of an independent woman, and a useful introduction to the thoughts and emotions that might accompany the creative process. Ages 5-8. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-O'Keeffe's visual voice was unique and bold for a woman born in 1887. Rodriguez gently tells this inspirational artist's story, not with hard facts on a rigid time line, but with quiet simplicity. The book begins with her childhood in Wisconsin and art school, then moves on to the canyons of the city and finally out to the expanses of Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. The influence of place on O'Keeffe is evident in the brief text. Using short, strong sentences and phrases, the author emphasizes the artist's creative force. Paschkis extends the words with the visual simplicity of colorful, cut-paper collages. These beautiful works capture the artist's style and the essence of specific works. Readers will feel the openness of Wisconsin's rolling prairie as well as the confines of art-school rooms and city canyons. The bold shapes of flowers, skulls, and mountains successfully bring the renowned artist's influence into this picture book. The clarity of text and illustrations gives it potential for group enjoyment and individual inspiration. A closing page offers several additional paragraphs on the woman's life.-Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary) In a pared-down, present-tense text, Rodr+guez introduces O'Keeffe, from her country childhood through art school in Chicago and New York to her eventual discovery of the wide-open Southwest. While the text is sometimes sentimental (""the wideness and wonder of the world amaze Georgia. She wants to share this magic with others""), it manages to strike a balance between presenting the facts and surmising the artist's all-important emotions. Paschkis, who likes to put patterns and curlicues in her illustrations, has here opted for a new style with painted cut-paper collages that capture the sweeping grandeur of O'Keeffe's style without actually mimicking it. When O'Keeffe arrives in New Mexico, the illustrations make it clear that she has found her home, showing rolling hills and a wide sky that finally match the shapes in her own paintings. The book's title implies a first-person text (as in Jeanette Winter's My Name Is Georgia, rev. 9/98), but it is the art that takes on the first-person voice here, often showing Georgia from behind as we look over her shoulder, seeing what she sees; Paschkis's illustrations convey O'Keeffe's love for sweeping arcs and a new way of seeing the world around us. A note on the last page fills in some gaps about O'Keeffe's life and legacy. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
At the turn of the 20th century, it was very rare, almost unheard of, for a woman to become an artist. But Georgia O'Keeffe was indeed a rare commodity, and her talent and determination could not be denied. She saw the world filled with color, brightness, light and astonishing shapes. Whether she lives in the city or on her beloved Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, "Every where she looks, shapes hum and sing to her." Art is her means of communication, more intense than the spoken or written word. Using the most basic biographical facts and the sparest language, Rodriguez offers a glimpse into O'Keeffe's unique world and beseeches the reader to "lean in and look closer." Paschkis's remarkable cut-paper collages on acrylic perfectly evoke O'Keeffe's vision without ever seeming like mere imitation. It is not often that author, illustrator and subject come together so seamlessly. Breathtaking. (afterword) (Picture book/nonfiction. All ages) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
