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Im not so sure I could have done otherwise, but I wish I.. .Im re-goin — Joan Mitchell

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"Im not so sure I could have done otherwise, but I wish I.. .Im re-going to a French shrink now, and shes helped me a lot. I wish Id gone sooner, because I think women are inclined more than men to be self-destructive, and I really think I had the masochistic medal there for a while, and I, you know, I want to, that I wish I had stopped. I think its also very masochistic to sit and cry in my spilt Scotch for areas in my life that have been very creepy and that I should have cut, left sooner. So whats, thats, I feel sorry about that. But Im getting to [me, be] perhaps more, oh, I dont know, trying to look at that in a more positive way. Maybe I got something out of that too, I dont know.. .Maybe. I mean.. .I feel also uncomfortable about staying in France, but then, if I could only make sort of a.., instead of saying negative, Im too lazy to move, a positive thing, I really like this house. I really like this view. I really like Paris better than New York - or not better, or equally, or differently, or something, which is quite true - instead of sitting - which I can do, I used to do - and missing the country and missing New York, or missing France."
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Joan Mitchell
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Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell
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Joan Mitchell was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artists in the 1950s. A native of Chicago, she is associated with the American abstract expressionist movement, even though she lived in France for much of her career.

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"I might get an idea [for the start of a painting] sitting looking at the river, or something, or a specific.. ..Yeess. Im sure, yes, Im sure it [the environment] influences me in terms of green and gray and color and.. .I mean, New York light is so different, and it always hits me when I come here [in New York], and it excites me to see great extremes of dark and light and no nuance - which I love. But there the Isle de France [round about Paris] has that, you know, filtered light that is that.. where even on a gray day, the green is very green, and the red is very red.. ..I think walking out barefoot and moving the paintings, being able to move them out of my studio [in Vetheuil] for transportation, things like that have had [influence].. .As well as the landscape. Lake Michigan was pretty important, you know."
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Joan Mitchell
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"Oh, early Kandinsky.. [stuck her early] .Well no, they had that at the Art Institute in Chicago, dont forget. See, everybody, to do modern art then [New York, mid-forties], seemed to me, when you were going modern [both chuckle], it was Picasso. I mean, everybody. But I avoided that like the plague. I thought.. .I loved Picasso, but it just wasnt for me.. .Well, I dont! I have some of those [early] paintings from LeLavandou - theyre in storage - and from Mexico. They were Expressionist landscapes, or boats on the beach or something like that, which I still do. Sort of going abstract, going towards.."
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Joan Mitchell