Been catching up with the digests at smoe.org from the past few days (my computer crashed in a power outageFriday and ate all the mail in my inbox ;-( Lots of good reading on critics and art and everything else. My 3 cents -
Joni's art - She has always told us she was a painter first - from the time she was a child. I know what that is like because I was painting everything in sight from the time I was a toddler. It was like I was born with that and I wasn't much good at anything else except words and a love of music throughout school. A love for, and desire to want to do nothing but, painting from such a young age is something that is so inherently buried in me that it will always want to express itself. I had to do other things to make a living (having no benefactors or patrons to support me) and had to suppress the painting to a large extent when I "grew up." I did find a way to excel at other things that were more immediately "marketable" and provided a steady income. In a sense, that is what Joni did, too. Her music may always be regarded as superior to her painting, but as she has said a few times, that was more of a "job" to her. But her first love and urge is to paint! I don't have the luxury of time to indulge myself in painting as much as I'd like to, but if, and when I ever do, that it where you will find me. Not to become prominent or famous in the art world, not to compete with thousands of other painters, not to have the esteemed critics approve of me, but because it is something that is essential for me to do. It is another way of expressing what one sees, hears, thinks and imagines where words and sometimes even music fails. The other side of the artist coin are people like I met in college who had never drawn or painted or created anything before who enrolled in the arts program saying "I am going to be one of the greatest artists of all time." Disturbing to me then and now. I seriously doubt that Joni likes to include her paintings with her music packaging because she wants to split peoples' critical attention. "Oh why are you forcing me to look at these paintings of yours when all I want to do is hear your lyrics and music?" I think she simply does it because that is part of who she is. Hopefully it doesn't *detract* from someone's enjoyment of the music. I really don't think she is doing it so that people will now consider her a great "artiste." I don't think all of Joni's lyrics are poetry, but some definitely strikes me as brilliant and genuine poetry. My academic pedigree and achievements are not in the stratospheric level, but not entirely pedestrian, either. Many of her lyrics rank right up there with, or better, a lot of what I was exposed to in my advanced English classes. A number of Dylan, Van Morrison and Stevie Wonder (oh and Jim Morrison ;-) songs also qualify as bonafide poetry in my book. Critics - I mostly avoid reading the "professional" ones in advance - they rarely help me in choosing whether to buy a piece of music or art or a movie ticket. A few of the ones who have reviewed Travelogue truly do not seem to have really listened to it or have just turned in a hack job. The most insightful reviews of Joni's and many other artists' music I've ever read have been right here on this list. Kakki
