Joni Mitchell- The Mountain Loves the Sea- watercolor 1971
Everything comes and goesMarked by lovers and styles of clothesThings that you held highAnd told yourself were trueLost or changing as the days come down to youDown to youConstant strangerYou’re a kind personYou’re a cold person tooIt’s down to you
— Joni Mitchell, Down to You
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the 1974 release of the album Court and Spark from Joni Mitchell. It has been a favorite of mine for those many years, though sometimes it fades from my playlist for a short while. But it always breaks back onto it and each time it does it feels like hearing it anew for me. The same of thrill and appreciation in hearing each song. It has aged well, at least to these ears.
Thought it would be a good morning to replay a post from back in early 2020 about the influence I found in it along with a song from it I haven’t played here before, Down to You.
Over the years, I have often been asked about influences on my work and I often list several artists that I feel pushed me in certain directions. Then I also point out that there have been influences that fall outside of the painter mode. For example, literature, poetry and film come immediately to mind. Then there’s pop culture such as cartoons and comics, television and so much more. I’ve mentioned that there was a Coca Cola tv ad back in the 80’s that featured saturated colors– reds and golds– that stuck in my mind for years before I began painting.
There are so many contributing sources of inspiration.
I mention this today because as I was looking for a piece of music to play this morning, I came across the old Joni Mitchell album from 1974, Court and Spark. It was a great album, one that I loved even as a teenage boy. I had not listened to it in several years but each of the songs was imprinted in me by this time.
I also hadn’t looked closely at its album cover for many, many years though it was a beautiful cover, cream colored with a small watercolor painting, The Mountain Loves the Sea, that Joni Mitchell had painted a few years before, tastefully in its center. It had a simple elegance that I recognized, again even as a teenage boy. But it was just one of those things that, because I had seen it so many times before, I didn’t look with any attention at all.
But I looked closer today at the painting in the cover’s center and was surprised at how much my own work sometimes held echoes of this little painting. I would never thought of Joni Mitchell as an influence beyond her music but looking at this little image made me rethink that.
Maybe it was just one of those little things that push you, without your knowledge, in one direction or another. Influences that you internalize and can’t recognize or name until you come face to face with them. We all have them, those small things we take in and blend together to make us who we are.
I am glad this album was one of those things for me.
Redtree Times 