Sunday, May 31, 2015

"... But more than that / I know / You’ll be alright / You’ll be alright ..."


















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

"In the Park of the Golden Buddha" -- 1995
"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 (Joni Mitchell's adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's poem)

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:

Anonymous said...

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.

Tara said...

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.