In August of 1999, I got a letter from the White House inviting me to make an ornament for the Blue Room Christmas tree. The theme was a part of Mrs. Clinton's " Save America's Treasures" program and was to honor our founding fathers, national monuments and significant events that defined and shaped America. Some of the listed choices were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Martin Luther King. 

I wanted  to do a woman I admired, Georgia O'Keeffe. I called the White House to ask if it had to be a political figure. When I mentioned that Georgia O'Keeffe was my choice, Debby McGinn in the White House Social Office told me that Mrs. Clinton had just had a Georgia O'Keeffe painting hung in the White House that year. She had had a ceremony to commemorate the first woman painter to have her work hung in the White House.

• Size: 12" tall figure

• Face: needle sculpted Swiss pima cotton knit, hand painted 

• Accessories: paint brush from a toothpick and horse hair, copper lapel pin, leather penny loafer shoes, felt hat

• Jointing: waxed linen thread, buttons

• Hair: mohair

I chose Georgia O'Keeffe because I have always admired her independence, strength and longevity along with her considerable skill as an artist. She is one of four women "heroes" who I planned eventually to make figures of as the Four Queens from the Tarot deck.

I studied several pictures to capture her likeness. It was difficult to locate pictures in color as most were taken by Alfred Stieglitz who worked in black and white photography. I noticed that even when she was "dressed up" she still wore comfortable penny loafers on her feet. I believe that the lapel pin which she wears in some of the pictures was made for her by her close associate, Alexander Calder. It was especially fun to recreate this pin in copper.