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She’s been labeled as being the most influential female recording artist of the late 20th century. Having lived in both the east
and west coasts of the States for most of her life she still maintains a residence in western Canada where she was born. Young
Roberta Joan (Joni) was affected by the music she heard in her home. Her mother introduced her to a few simple classics
such as Claire de Lune and her father loved Miles Davis’ jazz and it’s the amalgamation of the two that have, for decades, had
musicologists scratching their collective heads wondering just how she does it when she creates a new song. Her phraseology
is totally unique. As she said to Charlie… early music influences you.
In turn, hundreds of other musicians have been influenced by Joni including such diverse performers as Bob Dylan, Neil Young,
Judy Collins, Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus, Peter Gabriel, Prince, Nora Jones, Leonard Cohen, Shakira, Seal and even Sinatra.
Who or what’s influencing you? Is there something about your perspective, your attitude, or your work that’s staring you in the
face but you’re not yet seeing it? Is your antenna up? Are you inviting or seeking out new stimuli? And, perhaps more importantly,
do you consider yourself a learner?
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who I am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Waiting For You …and… Together by Lynda Pogue.
I wrongly considered florals as being fluffy art and had discounted the enthusiastic
responses viewers have to nature’s blossoms on canvas. Recently, I decided to go
back to the garden and explore contrasting expressions to see how darkness and then
lightness affected the glorious pinks of these petals… literally probing both sides.
When Tavis was interviewing Joni she said… You know, this is not a renaissance culture. It’s a culture of specialists... Maybe
because it’s easy for me, taking three subjects is nothing. They do interrelate, being a poet, a painter and a musician. I painted
this music on. You know, I layered it on stroke by stroke. Sometimes my music is a little too complicated…but painters have a
tendency to be able to follow it. They go through the layers and then they can assemble it.
Over the years, she has put herself into exile a few times and each time has emerged with more focus and drive. In her quietude
the music, the words and the images just welled up again.
But I know my needs
My sweet tumbleweed
I need more quiet times
By a river flowing
It’s as if her own personal well was drying up and when she stopped drawing
from it she replenished herself. Many artists (any entrepreneurs) need
to jump off the treadmill for a period of time and re-group. It’s that distancing
from one’s work that may give a much richer perspective.
Get out of your own way once in a while.
I’m going to take you to
My special place
I put things back together there
It all falls right in place
I’m Over Here by Lynda Pogue. When creating this divine
woman I envisioned her calling to her lover who adores her
posterior as much as the side we cannot see… both sides.
Like many artists, Joni thought of herself as a painter derailed by circumstance. She knew that to express herself honestly in
her early paintings she consciously didn’t allow herself to be influenced by such powerful and popular abstract expressionists
as Pollock or Barnett Newman. She wanted to paint as she sang: in a folk-artist-y way. (Her heroes were Van Gogh, Gauguin,
Matisse, and Rembrandt.)
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