Georgia O'Keeffe worked as an art teacher in Amarillo, Texas, in 1912.
She taught at a school in Amarillo after spending part of her early career in Virginia and Texas. Teaching supplied income while she developed her own ideas about simplifying forms and using abstraction to express personal experience.
O'Keeffe’s Texas years were important because the region’s broad skies, open plains, and intense light later informed her visual imagination. She also taught in Canyon, Texas, and became associated with West Texas landscapes before moving toward the New York art world.
Amarillo should not be confused with Canyon, another Texas place connected to her teaching career. Amarillo was the earlier city, while Canyon became especially important during her later teaching period at West Texas State Normal College.