O’Keeffe collected animal skulls and bones for her art

'Ram’s Head, White Hollyhock—Hills' marked a shift in O’Keeffe’s life and work

After a severe drought in the 1930s killed many animals near her home, O’Keeffe started collecting and painting their skulls. Her new style was interpreted as surreal and even macabre by many, presenting a shocking turn from her lighthearted flower portraits.

O’Keeffe was part of a movement of American artists changing previous norms

One of the most recognizable names of the American modernism movement from the early 1900s, O’Keeffe’s portrayals of nature strayed from realism and prioritized emotional truth, using elements like bold colors and abstract shapes to capture the feeling of observing her subjects.

Georgia O'Keeffe's subjects evolved based on the landscapes she lived in

Texas horizons, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico deserts are examples of the subjects O'Keeffe famously painted over the course of her life. While her style remained mostly consistent throughout her seven-decade career, her surroundings significantly changed the content of her artwork.

O’Keeffe made more than 2,000 pieces of art in her lifetime

See an interactive timeline that provides insight into just how prolific the artist was. Differentiated by year, the visualization shows when she was particularly active, and allows you to see the artwork from each year. Below is "Oriental Poppies" from 1928.

In 1949, O’Keeffe moved to the tiny desert village of Abiquiu, New Mexico

After nearly 15 years of trying to buy an idyllic hacienda from the church, she succeeded and moved in in 1949. The three-acre property featured a view of the Chama River Valley, which inspired many of her paintings.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

See the collection and interior of Santa Fe’s Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

The museum hosts hundreds of the artist’s paintings and many personal objects. Follow along while a curator shares context behind some of her iconic works and offers insights into O’Keeffe’s life and career.

Exploring bird skulls

Birds inspire us to fly—but what about bird skulls? This collection of various birds' preserved skulls offers a peculiar "bird's-eye" view. See the many surprising shapes of beaks and eyeholes, from mockingbirds to turkeys, in this fascinating visual collection.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became symbols for her fiction

O'Connor was drawn to peacocks because of their dichotomy—people were drawn to the beauty of their feathers but turned off by the ugliness of their behavior. It was an apt symbol for her fiction and the birds featured prominently on several of her books' covers.

La Catrina is Day of the Dead’s unofficial symbol

The image of the skeleton in a feather hat, satirizing women who chased European fashion trends, first appeared in 1912 on broadsides printed by José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican artist. Today, she is the holiday’s most recognizable symbol.

O’Keeffe’s relationship with a younger Juan Hamilton caused controversy

Juan Hamilton was broke, divorced and 27 years old when he met an 85-year-old O’Keeffe to ask for a job. She eventually gave him one, and they developed a close friendship and artistic partnership, while also fueling rumors of a romantic relationship. After she died, he received her house and a large portion of her estate.

A gallery of famous artists and their dogs

Picasso often featured his photographer's dog, Lump, in paintings, due to an unusually close connection. George O'Keeffe adopted chow chows as companions and protectors in the New Mexico desert. See the pets of Lucian Freud, Frida Kahlo, and more.

Ofrendas are memorial altars constructed to honor deceased loved ones

Each element of the altar is meaningful. There is food and drink to nourish the spirits on their journey, candles to light their way, and incense to protect against evil spirits, among other things.

The iconic Aztec 'crystal skulls' were 19th-century fakes

The crystal skulls long displayed as Aztec artifacts were actually fabricated in the late 1800s, all linked to French antiquities dealer Eugène Boban. Anthropologist Jane Walsh's investigation exposed their modern origins, overturning a century of mistaken museum lore.

When is it OK to dig up the dead?

Human bones tell stories that would otherwise be lost to history. But archaeologists are increasingly confronted with demands to let past generations rest in peace, according to this article.

Why patterns in art are so pleasing

Repeated visual cues like shapes or lines derive from the brain's innate compulsion to identify faces, places, bodies, and more. With repeated shapes, the brain seeks out resolution to the subtle variations between them. See examples in art and music.

Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska' was influenced by writer Flannery O'Connor

Springsteen became obsessed with the "Southern gothic" writer when he began working on the songs for "Nebraska," inspired by O'Connor's tragic characters and grotesque imagery.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

The mysterious qualities of obsidian and magnetite

Obsidian is a dark volcanic glass created when lava cools quickly and frequently contains magnetite, a key early mineral used in compasses. Large deposits were discovered and used in central Mexico by the Toltecs roughly 1,000 years ago at the ancient site of Teotihuacan. This essay explores obsidian's cultural impact and the mysterious presence of magnetite in migratory birds.

South Korean artist uses her own body as a canvas

Dain Yoon is a South Korean artist whose whimsical paintings utilizing her body as a canvas have gone viral. See examples of her works where she uses her face and torso to present elaborate, often surreal, visual works.

The Bone Wars turned paleontology into a rivalry fraught with public scandal

Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope were friends-turned-enemies competing for the glory of discovering dinosaurs. It became so intense that when Cope died, he donated his body to science to prove he had a bigger brain than Marsh.

The world’s oldest tattoos belong to 'Iceman' Ötzi

Ötzi is the corpse of "the Iceman" found in the Alps along the Italian and Austrian border in 1991. His mummified body was covered with lines and crosses along the “hard-working” areas of his body, signifying their potential application for therapeutic pain management.

Ritual Maya dental ornaments may have prevented tooth decay

Analysis of Maya dental sealants shows they used plant resins and gums—some derived from pine with antibacterial properties—suggesting gemstone tooth inlays may have helped reduce infection while serving ritual and symbolic purposes.

She sells seashells by the seashore or, more accurately, she sells dinosaur fossils along the Jurassic Coast

Now known as the mother of paleontology, Mary Anning was 12 years old in 1811 when her seashore scrounging uncovered an ichthyosaur fossil, the first complete one known to the London scientific community at the time. She spent the rest of her life contributing to a field that didn’t care to welcome her. This article details her life and work.

Basquiat's crown appears throughout several works

The artist first used the crown in 1981’s "Red Kings," which placed crowns over two heads. He’d continue using the motif throughout his career, often to highlight important figures, many of them Black, whom he believed had been overlooked.

Watch wild elephants 'mourn' their dead

Wild elephants in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya visited their dead matriarch's body weeks after her death and displayed behaviors that researchers are hesitant to call "mourning" though they do believe the animals are displaying a specific reaction in response to the death. The video shows elephants using their trunks to touch and explore the carcass while standing in place for extended periods, which is uncommon for the animals.

The story of serial killer Ed Gein who inspired pop culture

The creators of antagonists from "Silence of the Lambs" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" took notes from this horrifying Wisconsinite's story, known for body-snatching and creating keepsakes from corpses.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

Explore the animals that populate the depths of the ocean, from fish and coral in the first few hundred feet, all the way down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.