Rachel's Georgia O'Keefe drawing

Georgia O’Keeffe started taking classes at the University of Virginia for art teachers when she lost the confidence in achieving distinction in her art work. The art instructor, Arthur Wesley Dow, expressed to the class his belief on art: the goal of art was for the artist to express their personal ideas and feelings, such that the subject matter could be realized through the harmonious arrangements of line, color, and shading. O’Keefe took his belief to thought and tried to put his theory to a test. She began creating art to express her own emotions instead of imitating realism. In my opinion, O’Keefe created this charcoal drawing called No.8 to express the feeling of her being trapped. 

In the center of piece No.8 , there appears to be two people, one smaller than the other, being engulfed by the bleak vortex that surrounds them. This Drawing, in reference to The Road by Cormac McCarthy, depicts the man and his son being overcame by the dreary and bleak world around them.