From the faraway, nearby.
February 26, 2019
Georgia O’Keeffe used to sign her letters with “from the faraway nearby.”
Rebecca Solnit talks about this in her book The Faraway Nearby, titled after this phrase from many of Georgia O’Keeffe’s letters. This was a recent read for me but it has easily been added to my list of favorites.
“We’re close, we say, to mean that we’re emotionally connected, that we are not separate; or, we’ve become distant, to describe the opposite. After years in New York City, Georgia O’Keeffe moved to rural New Mexico, from which she would sign her letters to the people she loved, “from the faraway nearby.” It was a way to measure physical and psychic geography together.”
— Rebecca Solnit ‘The Faraway Nearby’
Like most of what O’Keeffe has said, I resonate with this.
Georgia O’Keeffe was a traveler, and adventurous with her life choices. She also suffered from anxiety and depression. She used travel as a way to overcome these roadblocks.
In dissecting “from the faraway nearby,” I think it’s clear that sometimes the physical act of traveling wasn’t the only form of traveling she found solace in…
