Georgia O’Keeffe, The Woman Behind the Myth: Assumptions and Associations Projected by Alfred Stieglitz throughout the 1920’s

Abstract

After visiting the Baltimore Museum of Art and selected which painting I would focus on for this paper, I was able to employ many of the library’s resources. Our class was structured in a manner that enabled research to be done methodically. After selecting what object we’d like to write on, we were instructed to compose a visual analysis; this proved to be a great way to get our intellectual juices flowing. With the aid of the visual analysis, I was able to come up with a topic that interested me, and would be researchable. The next stage was compiling an annotated bibliography. In order to do this I did a keyword search of the library catalog. This supplied a plethora of print resources that I was able to track down and sift through. In addition to the library catalog search, I also used the online journal search, on JSTOR and other Academic Journal catalogs. After selecting numerous sources—there was a requirement of ten—I spent time reading through each book and article in order to get a general sense of the main themes of each piece. Once I had decided which sources were necessary for my paper I read them more thoroughly: highlighting and underlining pertinent passages. I kept each article in a giant envelope and marked what days I had read what article to keep track of all sources. This methodical and organized structure of researching was the most important thing I learned about the research process. By taking the researching process one step at a time, I was able to fully absorb the points of view of each of my sources and then decide where these viewpoints merged with my own, and where they didn’t. As such, I was able to formulate a developed argument and support that with the research I’d accumulated.