Morning.

Please read this entire post before beginning. This will help you understand the steps.

As broadcast in yesterday’s class meeting, we’re returning to an old favourite today (by old, I mean from April; and by favourite I mean a couple of people said they really enjoyed it): Draw Like Joni!

As with last time, it will take a little longer than usual.  As with last time, I’d like you to invest in it. And as with last time, please make sure you read these instructions slowly, purposefully, and carefully.  Try to do each step in order.

You’ll need time, so if you are seeing this just before class meeting, wait until after.

Choose your own adventure: choose a painting and choose some music.

“I have always thought of myself as a painter derailed by circumstance.” ~ Joni

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.

Either:

Right-click or control-click here to open a new tab or window, and then take a look until you find an image that calls to you.  You can use the expand tool in the top right of each image to make it larger.

Or:

Right-click or control-click here and choose one of the paintings Joni made for her album covers. If you want a larger version of the art to work with, google the name of the album + “Joni Mitchell cover art.”

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.

When you’ve chosen your painting, you’ll come back to this tab/window and select your music.

4.  Choose your music.

Choose one song and play it on a loop, or go through two, three, or all four of these masterpieces of lyric and sound one after the other.

When you are ready, press “Play.”

Take your time – allow yourself to get lost in the work.

5.  Title: “Draw Like Joni.”

6.  Date it.

7.  Send it to me. I can’t wait to see it!

See you at 10:00!

Morning.  Welcome to Wednesday.

Yep.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  What makes you mad?  Not peeved.  Not miffed,  Not annoyed.  Not bothered.  But mad – or, as Joni sings in “The Sire of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song),” what makes you want to “spit out [your] bitterness”?  Draw that.

Keep those pencils in motion!

4.  Title: “Joni Mitchell – ‘The Sire of Sorrow’.”

5.  Date it.

6.  Send it to me.

If you want to read about the Book of Job – the ancient text examining the struggle to maintain faith in times of extreme suffering that Joni used as an inspirational structure for the song, go here.

If you want to read a brief comparison of the Book of Job with Joni’s song, go here.

If you want to read about polio, the virus Joni suffered from as a child and perhaps informed this song, go here.  If you want to read about the strange condition she has suffered from in later life, go here.

And if you want to here her redo of the song with the London Symphony Orchestra, go here.

Regardless, see you at 10:00!

ps:  Extra Credit: What do the janitors of Shadowland look like?  Draw that in a new frame, title it “The Janitors of Shadowland,” and send it to me, too!

Morning.

Oh, come on: it’s only Tuesday!

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Draw yourself at the worst party ever, while you listen to Joni sing about going to “People’s Parties,” from her 1974 album, Court and Spark, which wove folk, jazz, and electric rock into a sound that nobody had ever heard before and radically shifted the direction of pop music–forever!

4.  Title: “Joni Mitchell – ‘People’s Parties’.”

5.  Date it.

6.  Send it to me.

See you at 10:00!

(I don’t know about you, but listening to Court and Spark in its entirety while working on Mind Maps seems like the perfect way to spend a rainy Tuesday to me…)

ps: “Joni Mitchell.”

Below are the seven single-panel drawings you chose as options for the cover of our graphic novel adaptation of The Black Cauldron.  Before each drawing is its number, as listed in the original slide show.  Use those numbers when voting.  You will receive an email with a link to the voting form.

OPTIONS:

#7

#10

#13

#14

#18

#20

#22

Welcome back.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  You didn’t think all that amazingness could possibly be contained in just one week did you?!?  It’s the triumphant return of JONI-FEST!

(But first, some vocab:

Bliss: noun. 1.  Complete happiness.  2. Paradise; heaven)

What brings you instant bliss?  Draw that while you listen to Joni sing about “Yvette in English.”

4.  Title: “Joni Mitchell = Bliss.”

5.  Date it.

6.  Send it to me.

See you at 10:00!  Please bring your pages of The Black Cauldron – we’re going to add page numbers!

Morning.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  What images and words come into your mind when you think about our exploration of the news over this past week in the U.S.?  Combine those words and images to create a collage.  (You can listen twice to this unfortunately still relevant hit from Motown singer extraordinaire Marvin Gaye if you’d like to or you need to or you just can’t get enough.)

4.  Title: “The First Week of June, 2020.”

5.  Date it.

6.  Send it to me.

See you at 10:00!  Bring it.

Morning.

Yep.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Copy this painting by Aaron Douglas, “Aspiration,” while you listen to the soul-shattering Mahalia Jackson sing “Come Sunday,” from Duke Ellington’s  “Black, Brown, and Beige” suite.  Capture the entire image within the time limit.

4.  Title: “‘Aspiration,’ by Aaron Douglas, 1936.”

5.  Date it.

6.  Make sure it’s somewhere organized and safe.

See you at 10:00.

Morning.

There, there.  We only have a month to go…

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Draw an image that has lingered with you from any book you are reading right now or recently finished – this could be fiction or non-fiction.

When you’re ready, press “Play” below to listen to the kooky genius of harpist/singer/composer/actress Joanna Newsom sing “The Book of Right-On.” Go!

4.  Title: “An Image From [the name of the book].”

5.  Date it.

6.  Send it to me.

See you at 10:00!

ps: for those who are interested and/or trying to deepen their understanding, The Washington Post had a really interesting oral history this morning of the 48 minutes connecting Trump’s Rose Garden speech on Monday evening, the violent attack by federal forces on peaceful protesters outside the White House, and the march of Trump and his officials to the near-by church for their photo-op.  It is a compelling read that offers multiple perspectives and gives you a moment-by-moment inside view from witnesses who were there at that surreal moment in time.  Read it here.

Morning.

I don’t blame you.  Not one bit.

Steps:

1.  Outer space.

2.  Inner space.

3.  Copy this image in as much detail as possible when you listen to the Adagio from Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5.  You have about eight and a half minutes.  Try to capture the entire image.

4.  Title: “George Floyd.”

5.  Date it.

6.  File it for conferences.

See you at 10:00.

Welcome back.  What a weekend.

Steps:

1.  Outer space – do it for reals.

2.  Inner space – take your time; find your space.

3.  Look through the below gallery of covers from the African-American Altered Book project, made by MACC students-past.  Take your time.  As you flip through, pay attention to your gut: which of these influential black women or men calls to you?  (Grade 7s, please choose a cover that is not your own!).

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Once you have chosen your image, press “Play” below to hear the incredible Roberta Flack – she of the perfect pitch – sing “Go Down, Moses.”

While you listen, copy your image with as much precision as possible.  Honor these world-changers by not rushing.  If you need more time, click on the second music selection and continue.

4.  Your title is the name of this person – if you can’t read the name or it isn’t listed, ask me during class meeting.

5.  Date it.

6.  Send it to me.

See you at 10:00.