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Biography |
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Joni Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort Macleod, Alberta, in 1943. As a child, Mitchell had always shown talent and interest in visual art, and her parents recognized this early in her life. It was surprising to everyone, however, when her musical career started at the age of seven, when one of her friends inspired her to begin piano lessons. Joni quit the lessons after a year and a half, as she wanted to play her own songs instead of the classics that were forced on her. Her music and art were briefly interrupted at the age of nine, when she became extremely ill with polio. During her six weeks in the hospital, Joni was paralyzed and recalls being forced to lead a rich inner life. It was then that she promised herself that she would do something great with her life if she survived. In this way, Joni's struggle with polio helped to start her future career.
Luckily, Joni recovered from the disease, and later in the year of 1952 she moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which she now cites as her hometown. While attending Queen Elizabeth Elementary, Joni became the student of a grade seven teacher named Mr. Krazman. Mr. Krazman noticed Joni's talent in painting, which she had often exhibited at school. He told her, "If you can paint with a brush, you can paint with words." He inspired Joni to begin to write, and Joni did not forget this. She dedicated her first album to Mr. Krazman, and thanks him today for his encouragement. |
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After attending and graduating Aden Bowman high school, and receiving adequate marks, Joni enrolled in the Alberta College of the Arts. There she found the classes commercial and uninspiring, so Joni turned to folk music and began playing in clubs with her ukulele. She started by imitating Judy Collins and Joan Baez, playing for the money with no ambition. By 1964 she was singing her own songs exclusively in many popular clubs in Calgary. Soon, Joni moved to Toronto and married folk singer Chuck Mitchell, the first of her two failed marriages. Chuck used his contacts to help introduce Joni to the music business, and she was a success almost immediately. Her talents were first recognized on a worldwide scale when Judy Collins and Tom Rush recorded popular songs that she wrote. Three years later, she was divorced and signing her own record deals in New York. Her songs, such as Big Yellow Taxi and Woodstock, became the anthems for the hippie generation. Joni produced twenty more albums throughout her career, her style changing drastically from record to record. |
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Joni revisited her childhood passion of visual art in 1982, and began to focus less on her musical career. She had always been a painter before a singer, and could now afford to return to painting. In 2000, Joni exhibited her art in a collection called "Voices" at the Mendel Art Gallery in her hometown of Saskatoon. Eighty-seven works, including paintings, drawings, and photos, attracted a crowd from all around the world. Mitchell showed works influenced by her artistic heroes, Picasso and Van Gough, along with many self-portraits. Writer Robert Enright commented about this show: "All Joni's art is an aspect of self-portraiture, but turns away from self-gazing and is instead a look at the world around her." Her art was well received by family, friends, and the many people she had touched with her earlier work. |
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