The December People’s Choice Award goes to…

PRODUCTION
Minimal set. A couch, painting, easel. The Black Iris can be indicated, replicated, or projected- all artistic interpretation welcome.

REVELANT HISTORY
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was an American modernist artist. She was know for her painting of skyscrapers, landscapes, and monumental flowers which were a combination of realism and abstraction. Unbeknownst to O’Keeffe, her friend and National Women’s Party leader, Anita Pollitzer gave charcoal drawings O’Keeffe sent to her to a NYC gallery owner, which sparked his interest in her. The owner was Alfred Stieglitz, a renowned photographer and the first to exhibit her work, the two were later married. Stieglitz influenced the interpretation of her paintings in a profound way by defining them as symbolic of sexuality and female anatomy. He would also pair his photographs of her, nudes and close ups of her hands, neck, and feet, with her paintings. At this time psychoanalysis was also growing in popularity, the culmination of these factors seemed to solidify the public opinion of her work as overtly provocative, which she opposed.

To all the artists that give of themselves, may they never let anyone or anything take away their spirit to create.

CHARACTERS
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE: Female, (stage age 25-30) An artist, solitary and individualisticpersona.
SIGMUND FREUD: Male, (stage age middle-aged) Austrian scholar, self-assured, always with a cigar.

At Rise: Lights up on O’KEEFFE’s painting, a black iris on a large canvas. FREUD enters. He is in deep analysis of the piece. He walks back and forth smoking his cigar, his hands behind his back as he paces.

FREUD – Highly evocative, full of sensual overtones. What do you call this one Ms. O’Keeffe?

O’KEEFFE – A black iris.

FREUD – The sexual energy is palpable.

O’KEEFFE – Why have you come to my studio Dr. Freud? To give your analysis of my paintings?

FREUD – I’ve heard of your work and have come to see for myself-

O’KEEFFE – I see.

FREUD – After all, sex itself sits on that easel.

O’KEEFFE – It does?

FREUD – Yes, we’ve come face to labia with one of the largest manifestations of suppression.

O’KEEFFE – We have?

FREUD (excited by the possibility) – A fixation perhaps.

O’KEEFFE – (curiously looking at painting) – Fixation?

FREUD – Do not be alarmed. This is not uncommon in you “creatives.” Leonardo da Vinci never reconciled his illegitimate beginnings, and what did he do?

O’KEEFFE – Paint the Mona Lisa?

FREUD (correcting) – Wrong. He painted his mother’s smirk on female portraits. A maternal obsession, clearly the lack of a super ego kept him a prisoner that spent his time tinkering with his toys.

O’KEEFFE – Well, I paint nature, not portraits/

FREUD – He painted childhood fascinations disguised as portraits. That is why I am here. You see an artist’s neurosis can be identified in their work. I needed to see such sublimation first hand for my research.

FREUD examines O’KEEFFE up and down. Then closely watches her brush stroke. She pauses…

O’KEEFFE – It’s a flower.

FREUD – To the untrained eye , perhaps…
But ask me what I see in the shadows, in the unfolding evolution of the deepest layers?

O’KEEFFE (apprehensive) – What do you see in the/