The Spelling of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Name Is Now the Subject of an Internet Conspiracy Theory About Parallel Universes

Quick—what’s the correct spelling, “Georgia O’Keefe” or “Georgia
O’Keeffe”? And before you say anything, know this: How you answer
may literally depend on which reality you live in.

For the record, the art-historically correct answer is the one
with two “F”s. Nevertheless, some people still really, really
believe that the famed American painter, pioneer of abstraction,
and icon of the Southwest is “Georgia O’Keefe.” And not only that:
They believe that the co-existence of the two names is evidence of
parallel dimensions, or a sinister conspiracy of mass mind-control.
Or something.

The “O’Keefe/O’Keeffe” question has recently surged to the surface
of internet chatter as a cardinal example of the “Mandela Effect,”
a term coined in 2009 by Fiona Broome, an author of several “how-to books about ghost
hunting.” After a speaking engagement at the annual sci-fi
convention Dragon Con, she realized that several people in her
circle had similar memories of South African political leader
Nelson Mandela having died in prison. He was, at that time, still
very much alive. (He passed away in 2013.)

The “Mandela Effect” became, in Broome’s use, the name for “what
happens when someone has a clear memory of something that never
happened in this reality,” as her official website dedicated to the
phenomenon puts it. Online communities have sprung up around
documenting examples where collective memory seems to disagree with
recorded fact.

The most
viral probably concerns the classic children’s picture
book series by Stan and Jan Berenstain, the “Berenstain Bears,”
which many, many people insist was originally titled the
“Berenstein Bears.” Most are similarly firmly in the realm of
pop-culture trivia, including the fact that Star Wars
villain Darth Vader never actually says the line “Luke, I am your
father” and that the actress in the film Frida is “Selma
Hayek” and not, as is accurate “Salma Hayek.”

Where this all crosses over from the realm of funny internet
trivia to spookier territory (or stupider territory, depending on
your perspective) is the insistence that these false memories are
examples of sinister paranormal disturbances in the collective
memory. “Some of us speculate that parallel realities exist,
and—until now—we’ve been ‘sliding’ between them without realizing
it,” the Mandela Effect site explains.

Here’s where the painter of Cow’s Skull: Red, White,
and Blue comes into the picture, according to the
“Mandela Effect
Database”:

Well this one is sort of mindblowing. If you’ve ever taken an
art class, it’s almost a cliche that you’d be introduced to Georgia
O’Keefe, and invariably walked through the “flowers? vaginas!”
thought exercise. Very few artists achieve household name status,
but O’Keefe is an American darling, hailed as the “Mother of
American modernism”, and even has a whole museum dedicated to her
work.

So when did she become O’KEEFFE, with the two extra Fs at the
end? Like I said, mind blown.

History recalls O’Keefe however!

In the jargon, the evidence of alternate spellings is a
“residual,” proof of an alternate reality that was not erased. In a
video posted at the end of
August, one YouTube commentator tracks down a host of “Georgia
O’Keefes” on the web to make the case. “I’m not looking for
conflict or trolls or anything else, but I think this Georgia
O’Keefe is a pretty solid proof that something spooky and at a
distance is going on,” he claims. “I think I could prove in a court
of law that her name has been changed.”

The video continues to ask the obvious questions:

Why was Georgia O’Keeffe targeted? I do not think these targets
are random, people. Especially on these celebrities. Almost
everybody involves wealth. Money seems to be the common
denominator. I’ve said this before, but with this Mandela Effect, I
do not think the primary motivator is money by any means, but I
think that this is a side project, a side application of this
technology. So I do think following the money is a wise idea when
you are looking into this as well.

Well, that clears things up!

Among the smoking gun pieces of evidence presented is the
existence of a “Georgia O’Keefe Road” in Los Cruces, New Mexico,
and a “Georgia O’Keefe Way” in Marlton, New Jersey. As to the
latter, I am delighted to find that there is a New Jersey
neighborhood where all the streets are named after American
painters, including “Andy Warhol Way” and “Thomas Eakins Way.” And
in fact, the township’s “Georgia O’Keefe Way” does seem to be
spelled, embarrassingly, with just one “F”.

As for the New Mexico example, however, “Georgia O’Keeffe Road”
now appears with the familiar spelling in Google Maps. Our
interdimensional overlords are getting pretty sloppy, leaving the
evidence in one place but wiping it away in the other.

Such is the nature of conspiracy theories that every effort to
debunk is just further proof. But there is, of course, a much simpler
explanation for the “Mandela Effect” than a rift in the fabric
or reality itself. Memory is actually very malleable. Most “Mandela
Effect” examples involve a very common mispronunciation or
misspelling.

“Berenstein” happens to be a much more common last name than
“Berenstain,” so it’s quite logical that people might
systematically mistake the one for the other. Similarly, both
“O’Keeffe” and “O’Keefe” are common Irish names, and plenty of
people in our actual reality have the latter (including far-right
media prankster James O’Keefe, who’s been much present in the world of
paranoid news these last few years).

Is it worth mentioning that misspellings of her name were
something that Georgia O’Keeffe dealt with quite a bit in her own
lifetime? According to biography Full Bloom: The Art and
Life of Georgia O’Keeffe, the artist expressed frustration
that the press consistently got her name wrong in a 1924 letter to
author Sherwood Anderson where she tried to get him to write a
catalogue essay for her. As author Hunter Drohojowska-Philp
explains, “The majority of reviews of her 1923 shows… had spelled
her name O’Keefe.”

This all may be just amusingly outlandish stuff. There are
probably better things to do than to try to debunk it. Then again,
you shouldn’t really have to debunk the idea that the world is flat in 2019, but that’s
seemingly a growing
trend too.

The post The Spelling of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Name Is Now the
Subject of an Internet Conspiracy Theory About Parallel
Universes appeared first on artnet News.