Georgia O'Keeffe (1887 – 1987) was born on a farm near Wisconsin, America. Her experiences of the cycles of nature served as an important source for her work as an artist. In her youth, she attended Chicago's Art Institute and New York's Art Students League. Later, she lived in New Mexico where she often used the elements of the southwestern desert landscape in her work. Mountains, skulls and bones often appeared in her paintings as did larger than life flowers. During her 70 year career as both artist and teacher, O'Keeffe's art fluctuated between the representational and the abstract. She remains one of the central figures of American Modernism.