“A Rose for Georgia” is a piece made by Chicago-based artist Journie Cirdain specifically for the Art Institute of Chicago’s Project Windows, a window display competition and citywide celebration of Georgia O’Keefe in conjunction with the current exhibition of her work, “My New Yorks.”

Cirdain’s piece is made with the same dimensions as O’Keefe’s painting “City Night,” now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. In “City Night,” O’Keefe looks up from street level between two towering New York skyscrapers at the illuminated night sky. The tall, elongated rectangle of the canvas itself emphasizes the canyon-like height of the city buildings.

Similarly, “A Rose For Georgia” towers through the center of the canvas at human-scale. Using O’Keefe’s special interest in axial symmetry as inspiration, Cirdain paid special attention to the natural occurrence of patterning and mirroring inherent in a rose.

Additionally, this drawing is composed on white silk because O’Keefe’s home, which Cirdain has visited, is filled with airy white fabrics. The walls are adobe and the rooms are minimalist and intentional. She clearly valued the sensual texture of organic and natural materials. Cirdain’s work honors this attention to simplicity, form, and nature.

Walk on by, gaze for a while, and be sure to vote for our entry!

Journie Cirdain (b. 1993, California) makes drawings that explore themes of magic, wildness and the feminine in order to dive deeper into human interaction with the non-human in ways which do not reinforce fantasies of human power or superiority, but instead interpret this relationship as far more complicated and mutually generative. Using graphite on paper, Cirdain utilizes discursive drawing styles in order to engage in different qualities of thought. She earned a BA from the Great Books program at St. John’s College and an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has shown nationally and internationally in group shows, and her most recent solo exhibitions include Memento Vivere at Western Exhibitions in Chicago, and Growing Out at Gallery A in Seattle.