Your path: Mitchell Portland Open Studios
Joni Mitchell Selected for
Portland Open Studios
Excerpt from an article by Susan Gallacher-Turner in Portland Open Studios, June 26, 2008.
It's the tools that powered Joni Mitchell's interest in stone carving.
"In my first class, I only had a hammer and a very small chisel and I swore that I would never touch marble again, because it was too hard," said Joni. But when Marylhurst teacher M.J. Anderson, a well-known stone sculptor, introduced Joni to power and air tools, Joni said, "Then I really loved it."
Joni's journey into art started with a correspondence course and ended with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marylhurst University. In the process, she has worked in watercolor, acrylics and charcoal. But it was a clay sculpture class that fired her love of the three dimensional form and led her finally to stone.
"With sculpture, I just knew what to do, it might be anatomy training for the radiology work that I do helped, but I loved it and I couldn't stop doing it," Joni said. "I've always loved stone. I grew up as a child collecting pretty rocks. And I love the permanence of it when it's done."
Marble sculpting was a process that took patience, focus and perseverance. And for Joni, it was a way to find answers to personal questions and a choice to see the beauty in life.
"It's a very spiritual thing to me," she said. "I've always been that person to see the beauty and the beautiful things in life. In my heart I always wanted to sculpt something positive and beautiful."
Joni has shown her work in the Beaverton Arts Commission show. Currently her work is being shown at the Kingstad Gallery in Beaverton through September 5.
You can visit her this fall during the Portland Open Studios Tour October 11-12, 2008. Portland Open Studios is a self-directed tour of 98 artists' workplaces located throughout the Portland Metro area.