(My hope is that you do actually invest in Steps 1-2; my fear is that you are so used to seeing them that they have just become a kind of white noise. If that has been true, maybe today is the day you see what happens if you dig into them!)
1. Outer Space
prepare the space around you
2. Inner Space
prepare the space within you
3. This is an interpretive drawing.
Draw you, having an encounter with a visitor from another planet.
Rules:
full body
face visible
do your best to silence The Two Questions; let what happens happen
keep your pencil moving for the entire 4 1/2 minutes
And oh my goodness, if you have not yet met The B-52s, prepare yourself: you’re in for a toe-tapping, can’t-help-but-get-up-and-dance treat! Press “Play” and set that pencil in motion!
4. Give your image a title.
5. Date it.
6. Email it to me.
A reminder that there is no Class Meeting today – you have a gift of time; how will you use it? Consider making a brief but specific schedule – can you spend meaningful time with all of our major activities today? Don’t forget to build in time for exercise, outdoor time, activities that fill you up and connect you to yourself, and virtual social contact with people outside of your bubble – as well as time to do nothing! Oh, and also schedule a time today to close your bedroom door and spaz-dance around the room to this:
Do it for reals! Resistance is futile! You may be surprised by how good it feels! You may be surprised to discover how much you needed that!
(PS: Science conferences: those whom I am meeting with today, please double-check your time, and set yourself up for success by taking several extended moments to make notes to yourself about the things you want to draw my attention to.)
what do you need to do to prepare the space around you?
2. Inner Space
what do you need to do to prepare the space within you?
3. This is a copying drawing.
Choose:
sketch out the entire image, calmly and purposefully – fill in with detail if you have time or
zoom in on one aspect and draw it in detail, aiming for precision
This is another Margaret Jones illustration from The Mabinogion, this time from the second branch, “Branwen, daughter of Llŷr.” In this scene, the captive Branwen has taught a starling how to speak and sends it with a message to her brother in Wales to help her escape from her unhappy life in Ireland (spoiler alert: everyone dies).
If you want a high-res version that you can zoom in on, right-click on this to open it in a new tab or window after you get the music going.
Before you begin, press “Play” below to hear the utterly enchanting 2nd movement of Mozart’s “Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major,” which may offer a blast to the past and bring you briefly back to the head-warm confines of Room 105.
Start when the music starts; stop when it stops. Keep your pencil in motion for the entire time in between.
4. Title: “Branwen’s Messenger,” by Margaret Jones.
5. Date it.
6. If it’s on loose paper, file it somewhere safe and organized so that we can look at it together later.
Now that you’re done, what can you do to ride this calm, focused energy into a productive day? But before you leave this page, is there anything in that image that might be helpful for your work with The Black Cauldron?
See you at 10:00!
PS: want to see photos of the original written version of these Mabinogion texts (remembering that these legends existed in oral form for hundreds of years before they were committed to print)? Go hereto see The Red Book of Hergest! And the translated version of this branch can be read here.
PPS: Anyone remember how to pronounce the double-L in Welsh? Doesn’t it seem like about 5000 years ago that we learned that?? Time flies when you’re stuck inside the same four walls for six weeks – except when it doesn’t…
Remember when Lynda Barry talked about the R. Crumb comics in Zap with the ordinary person walking down the street and then getting hit by a meatball falling from the sky and experiencing a sudden revelation? Now it’s your turn!
Steps:
1. Outer Space
what do you need to do to prepare the space around you?
2. Inner Space
what do you need to do to prepare the space within you?
3. Draw a frame in your comp book. Divide that frame into three.
While you listen to the just-now-finally-starting-to-get-her-due Sister Rosetta Tharpe, you will draw three panels:
First panel: a person doing something.
Second panel: a meatball falling from the sky and hitting that person on the head.
Third panel: that person having a life-changing revelation.
You have about 7 and 3/4 minutes. Go!
4. Title: “Meatball!”
5. Date it.
6. Send me a photo.
Now that you got that out of your system, perhaps consider making your schedule for the day. If you haven’t already done so, maybe reread Friday’s virtual HW Sheet – did you miss anything?
Please watch this interview with the official Godmother of Div. 3, Lynda Barry:
When you are done:
1. Make notes in your comp book about things that stood out for you in the interview.
2. Post at least one comment using “Leave a Reply” below, using your class name. Feel free to build on others’ comments. Possible ideas:
what in what Lynda Barry said might be useful to you in your life?
what in what she said might be useful to you in your work with The Black Cauldron?
connections to previous learning, including things like mindset and Wagamese, and Science and Writing
3. Consider trying their 90-second drawing challenge with family members: give each other a shape and then put on 90 seconds of music and turn the shape into a self-portrait of you dancing.
If you’d like to see the drawings Lynda Barry and Tom Power did, go here.
If you’d like to take things a little further and listen to another interview between these two from 2015, go here.
If you want to take a deep dive into the Image World, go here.
The dawn has risen on the final day of Joni-Fest. Prepare yourselves, young padawans, for all of your work has been building toward this moment…
Vocab: Hejira – “a journey, especially when undertaken to escape from a dangerous or undesirable situation” (Merriam-Webster).
Hejira – “a flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place,” or “escape with honor” (Joni Mitchell).
Joni found the word “hejira” while reading the dictionary, and was drawn to the “dangling j, like in Aja… it’s leaving the dream, no blame.”
Steps:
1. Outer Space
what do you need to do to prepare the space around you?
2. Inner Space
what do you need to do to prepare the space within you?
3. This is an interpretive drawing.
Think back to the art we created while listening to the “Prelude” and “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde. We’re going to do something similar here.
Your job is to listen to the title track from Joni’s ground-breaking 1976 album Hejira and to draw what you hear.
There is no right or wrong: you can interpret the lyrics; you can interpret the music; you can draw what you see in the YouTube window, just images, images and words – totally up to you.
Before you begin, though – have you actually done Steps 1 and 2 above? If not, please do so now.
If you wish, you can read the lyrics before you begin – this is not required.
This album was mostly written during a road trip across the U.S. (disguised in a red wig and sunglasses and going by the aliases “Joan Black” and “Charlene Latimer”!) and is full of the kind of density of imagery and metaphor (and the layers of sound – “braided together . . . a sheet of sound,” as Joni said) that has made Mitchell famous – painting with words, as it were. It also is known for the deeply groovy bass-guitar work of Jaco Pastorius, who played a uniquely fretless bass.
Deep breath. Do your best to allow what happens to happen. Go.
4. Title: Joni Mitchell – “Hejira.”
5. Date it.
6. If you have not already done so, you will send me all five of your Joni drawings today, doing your best to send me clear images (but not obsessing over it).
For those who are now full converts, or at least Joni-curious, you could do worse things with your time than watch this documentary or watch Joni tame a crowd of 100,000 hippies. If you do so, let me know your thoughts and we’ll consider it extra credit in Socials, Writing, or Art – your choice.
Check-in question: what is one thing you’ve learned, noticed, or appreciated about Joni Mitchell?
what do you need to do to prepare the space around you?
2. Inner Space
what do you need to do to prepare the space within you?
3. This is an interpretive drawing.
Who are you looking forward to seeing in person after physical-distancing restrictions are lifted?
Draw you, Ivan Brunetti-style, with that person (or persons), Ivan Brunetti-style.
With your Ivan Brunetti-ing, think: what are the defining physical characteristics of you? Of this person (or these people)? (Physical characteristics include shapes of body, face, and hair, but also things like habitual body language and/or items of clothing or other objects.) How would we know it is you? How would they know it is them?
This is the music to listen to while drawing – you have about three minutes:
4. Title: Joni Mitchell – “Stay in Touch.”
5. Date it.
6. Email it to me today, or email it tomorrow with all five of your Joni-Fest drawings. You might consider emailing it to the person (or people) you drew, too. Think what a nice start to their day that would be. : )
Interesting fact: the above song was written after Joni was reunited with the daughter she had given up for adoption thirty-two years earlier. Here’s the heartbreakingly beautiful song she wrote after signing the adoption papers in the 1960s, “Little Green.” Here’s a short clip about their reunion. Here’s a clip from an interview in which she discusses getting pregnant while in art school and the factors that led to the adoption. And if you’re a music-lover or art-lover or a lover of social history and you want to go all in, here’s the interview in its entirety.
If you are not exploring the above, now would be a great time to make your schedule for the day. Can you spend time with all of our on-going projects – The Black Cauldron, Wagamese, Science research, Math – and also build in exercise breaks and time for reading, mental health-boosting activities, social interaction, outside time, and laziness?
Remember: I’ll be asking to see your chosen system of time management tomorrow.
I know, I know, but get up anyway – if it’s true love, your bed will wait for you.
So: no Class Meeting today – but all the other usual things will happen anyway, including Team 6-Square’s 1:00 Wagamese discussion.
Today’s Index Card Drawing will take a little longer than usual – it’s a copying drawing; I’d like you to invest in it. It also involves some choices – you get to Choose Your Own Adventure – so please make sure you read these instructions slowly, purposefully, and carefully. Try to do each step in order.
Fun fact: Joni considers herself more of a painter than a musician – which is saying something. She uses each of these disciplines to feed the other, in the same way that farmers let certain fields go fallow for a year in order to increase the nutrients in the soil for the years to come:
“Anytime I make a record, it’s followed by a painting period. It’s a good crop rotation. I keep the creative juices going by switching from one to the other, so that when the music or the writing dries up, I paint.”
Today, you’re going to copy one of Joni’s paintings – you get to choose which one, and you get to choose what kind of music you’re in the mood for.
Steps:
1. Outer Space
materials (a sharp pencil is your friend) (but don’t tell your bed: it may get jealous)
remove or turn off distractions
clear workspace
2. Inner Space
body relaxed but aware (this takes a little time)
connect to breath (so does this)
clear head
3. Choose your painting.
Go here, and then take a look until you find an image that calls to you. Use the “Browse by Decade” tool to explore the possibilities. I’m not in a rush – are you?
Click on the name of an image to get to its page, and then click on the painting itself and a small version of it will pop up. If you’d like a larger version to work with, open a new tab in your browser and google the name of the painting + “Joni Mitchell.”
Your job is to copy this image with as much detail and precision as you can – slowly and calmly, remembering Lynda Barry’s advice about images as maps, with one line connected to the other, focusing on spatial relationships.
If you wish, you can add color – that is optional.
Take your time – allow yourself to get lost in the work.
4. Choose your music.
Are you in the mood for something with lyrics or an gentle, extended guitar solo?
If you choose lyrics, you will press “Play” here when you are ready:
If you choose guitar solo, press “Play” here, then right-click the YouTube window and select “Loop,” and then keep listening until you are finished with your drawing:
5. Title: “Joni Mitchell – [the name of the painting]”
6. Date it.
7. Either email it to me today, or email it on Friday with all of your Joni drawings.
Now – how will you start your day? Consider making a schedule based on yesterday’s virtual HW sheet. Build in some DPA breaks. Set aside time to just relax. Can you spend meaningful time with each thing today? The Black Cauldron, Wagamese, Math (those who are interested, check out the entirely optional new Math Extensions page), Science. Daily Diary.
Also, check out this (note that Judy has started to broadcast from her home – what pattern do you notice in her choice of reading material? She didn’t get that smart just by hoping):
Okay, so if I say the word “diner,” do you know what I’m talking about? If not, go here and/or here.
And now: back to Joni-Fest. If you were to draw a family tree for the musical heritage of any of today’s singer/songwriters, the trunk would inevitably be labelled “Joni.” No joke. One of the most powerful aspects of her legacy is the layers that are in her songs – layers of metaphor and imagery in the lyrics, and layer upon layer of sound in the music. She is the only artist whom I have never pressed “Fast Forward” on when she comes on the shuffle in my playlists – after several decades of (near obsessive) listening, there is always more to hear. Check it:
Steps:
1. Outer Space
materials
remove or turn off distractions
clear workspace
2. Inner Space
body relaxed but aware (this takes a little time)
connect to breath (so does this)
clear head
3. This is an interpretive drawing.
Draw yourself, Ivan Brunetti-style, as a waitress in a diner.
What are you doing?
What are you saying?
What are you thinking?
You have three minutes – go!
4. Look at your image – did you follow the criteria?
5. Title: Joni Mitchell – “Barangrill”
6. Date it.
7. Email it to me today, or save it to send on Friday.
Now, how can you set yourself up for a successful, productive day?
If you’re interested, there’s more info about “Barangrill” here – which is from the album For the Roses. Fun fact: the photo on the cover of the album was taken at Joni’s home in Halfmoon Bay, which is over on the Sunshine Coast. Don’t you wish you could write “Halfmoon Bay” as your address?
For the Roses was mainly about Joni’s increasingly ambivalent relationship to fame. If you want to get blown away by her guitar work, her use of consonants to create images, and her ability to seemingly bend time in a song, take a trip over here. In my opinion, the misty quality of the archival footage adds a whole other layer; it kind of makes this like being sung to by a ghost…
This week it’s going to be all Joni Mitchell all the time.
You may remember from Term Two that we drew to the original version of one of this Canadian goddess’s most famous songs, “Both Sides Now,” and then later we drew again to the version she did about three decades later, when her voice was about three octaves lower.
Joni is widely considered, along with Bob Dylan, the most influential singer-songwriter of all time. My hope is that by the end of this week you will understand why, and that whenever anyone anywhere says the words “Joni Mitchell,” you will stop whenever it is that you are doing and reflexively do this:
Steps:
1. Outer Space
materials
remove or turn off distractions
clear workspace
2. Inner Space
body relaxed but aware (this takes a little time)
connect to breath (so does this)
clear head
3. This is an interpretive drawing.
What is your experience of Time? Draw that.
Start when the music starts, and then keep your pencil moving for the entire length of the song; stop when the music stops.
4. Title: Joni Mitchell: “The Circle Game.”
5. Date it.
6. I am going to ask that you send me all five of the Index Card Drawings we do this week. You can either do that one at a time, each day, or you can send me all five on Friday – your choice.
Now, how will you use this time productively while you wait for our Class Meeting to start? Perhaps a goal journal entry? Perhaps a check-in with your The Black Cauldron partner(s), helping each other set realistic goals for the day? Perhaps draw faces and hands until you can’t stand it anymore? Maybe check Fridays virtual HW sheet to see if you missed any key items? Maybe sit in silent awe of what you just heard?
See you at 10:00!
ps: You can find more information about “The Circle Game” here, at jonimitchell.com; this site is a lesson in Depth and Complexity. No joke.
sketch out the entire image, calmly and purposefully – fill in with detail if you have time
or
zoom in on one aspect and draw it in detail, aiming for precision
This is another Margaret Jones illustration from The Mabinogion, “The Cauldron of Rebirth” (sound familiar?).
If you want a higher res version that you can zoom in on, right-click on this to open it in a new tab or window after you get the music going.
4. Before you begin drawing, press “Play” in the YouTube window below to listen to what is, in my opinion, one of the most sublime pieces of music ever – the 3rd Movement of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 – played by one of the greatest concert pianists ever, Leon Fleisher, with one of the best orchestras of its time, the Cleveland Orchestra, led by one of the world’s best conductors, George Szell. (Shout out to those heartbreaking cello solos by Jules Eskin! Wow!). This is why you put in all those hours on the bench, otaku.
Now stop reading this, press play, scroll back up, and start drawing. Start when the music starts, and kept your pencil moving until the music ends, then stop.
Deep breath. Go.
5. Date it.
6. You do not need to email it to me, but we will look at it later. If it’s loose paper, file it somewhere organized and safe.
Is there anything in “The Cauldron of Rebirth” image that might be useful for your The Black Cauldron work? Do you want to practice more of it, or save it/print it/file it?
And now that you’re at it, perhaps consider writing down your schedule for the day. We’re going to try to do crossword puzzles, so Class Meeting might go until around 12:00 or so, depending on how clever y’all are.
