Georgia O'Keeffe became head of the art department at West Texas State Normal College in 1916.
O'Keeffe moved to Canyon, Texas, in 1916 to teach art at West Texas State Normal College, now West Texas A&M University. She became head of the art department and remained there until 1918. Her teaching work followed earlier positions in South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
While in Canyon, O'Keeffe continued developing the abstract visual language that had begun in her charcoal drawings. The surrounding Texas landscape later influenced paintings such as those depicting the Palo Duro Canyon.
Her teaching career is sometimes overshadowed by her later New York and New Mexico years, but it was crucial to her development. The 1916 appointment also predates her move to New York in 1918, where her relationship with Alfred Stieglitz and the city's modern-art scene expanded her public career.