Ever since I heard the news about a month ago that she was in the hospital, I have been thinking about Joni Mitchell and how much her music has meant to me since I first heard her in 1968, when I was 18 years old. I had looked for and found no updates on her condition, and a few days ago I went to her website to check again. I didn't find an update, but I found 300 pages documenting her art work. Although I knew that she was a painter, I had no idea how much work she has done throughout her life. The catalogue opens with pieces of undetermined dates and then moves year by year through her art work that can be dated, beginning with drawings when she was 3 years old in 1947.
It has taken me several days to look at all the art work and notes. That was time well spent.
Here are some of my favorites:
"Untitled" -- 1947
"Calico Cat" -- 1969
"Ladies of the Canyon" -- 1969
"Sweet Sucker Dance (Abundance and Decline)" -- 1976
"Georgia O'Keeffe" -- 1978
"A Chair in the Sky" -- 1978
"Untitled" -- 2001
"Untitled" -- 2002
"Dreamland" -- 2004
Panel 2 of "Green Flag Song" exhibition -- 2007
Panel 17 of "Green Flag Song" exhibition -- 2007
On her website, I also found that a video documenting her exhibition of 60 new works in Los Angeles in 2007:
If
you can keep your head
While
all about you
People
are losing theirs and blaming you
If
you can trust yourself
When
everybody doubts you
And
make allowance for their doubting too.
If
you can wait
And
not get tired of waiting
And
when lied about
Stand
tall
Don’t
deal in lies
And
when hated
Don’t
give in to hating back
Don’t
need to look so good
Don’t
need to talk too wise
If
you can dream
And
not make dreams your master
If
you can think
And
not make intellect your game
If
you can meet
With
triumph and disaster
And
treat those two imposters just the same
If
you can force your heart
And
nerve and sinew
To
serve you
After
all of them are gone
And
so hold on
When
there is nothing in you
Nothing
but the will
That’s
telling you to hold on!
Hold
on!
If
you can bear to hear
The
truth you’ve spoken
Twisted
and misconstrued
By
some smug fool
Or
watch your life’s work
Torn
apart and broken down
And
still stoop to build again
With
worn out tools
If
you can draw a crowd
And
keep your virtue
Or
walk with Kings
And
keep the common touch
If
neither enemies nor loving friends
Can
hurt you
If
everybody counts with you
But
none too much
If
you can fill the journey
Of
a minute
With
sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight
Then
The
Earth is yours
And
Everything that’s in it
But
more than that
I
know
You’ll
be alright
You’ll
be alright.
Cause
you’ve got the fight
You’ve
got the insight
You’ve
got the fight
You’ve
got the insight
©2007;
Crazy Crow Music
Still no update on the Joni Mitchell website, but I found this.
Sending love and gratitude to you, Joni.
2 comments:
I've been a loving fan of Joni Mitchell's since 1968 as well. Her music was the soundtrack of my early life, her poetry the view into love and life I most understood in my heart. I read the other day that she may have had a brain aneurysm in late March and is now in rehab facility. I think of her everyday, listen to her music, and wish her the very best.
And, she is truly a stunning artist. One of my lifetime heroes.
she is an ultimate creative. i was sorry to hear about her condition, and it sounds as if a friend of hers has taken over legal/health decisions for her for the time being. I hope she regains function. her life is one big work of art. music, writing, painting and song. I have more of her albums than any other artist. Like you and Robin, she sang the sound track of my teen years and well beyond. I always marvel and her new turns and twists. She keeps growing, expanding, and taking us along for the ride.
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