In this episode, we dive into the life and career of Joan Mitchell. From her ice skating days to her troubled relationships, Joan Mitchell had wildlife from start to finish. If you have no idea who this is, then dive in and learn about an amazing woman.

Thank you for listening and learning today!

Special thanks to my brother for creating the intro/outro, my last bottle of wine for the breaks, and my husband for being him.

Sources Used

• Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter | Joan Mitchell Foundation - Details for the book
• Joan Mitchell Foundation

Host B: I'm assuming pneumonia for the lungs.

Host: It's an infection that inflames the air sacks in your lungs.

Host B: The ball sacks?

Host: No, the air sacks. Oh, okay.

Host B: It's the worst way to die.

Host: Oh, my gosh. I don't know. I don't have balls.

Host B: Hopefully you don't have been living alive these years. No, wait, so I felt something in the other days of an air minus. No, it's not the ball sex.

Host: I'll leave the remote.

Host B: Yeah, it's pretty big.

Host: Okay. Back to her parents. His mother Sarah, died just a few days before his fifth birthday, which is just incredibly sad, just being parentless on your birthday. But also, I mean, it's your mom. I know it's life, but still, it's pretty sad, right?

Host B: I think it's depends on the mom.

Host: Oh, my God. Forced Jimmy's sisters to, like, thrust into the role of mother. And so she took care of her siblings and a very sink infant because their mom gave birth. And so she's basically the household mom now. The last child of Jim and Sarah Mitchell was a boy named Claire, and he died of meningitis. Now, this all had a huge impact on Jimmy because basically he was adopted by his sister. That's his mom figure. And then he had this bitterness to the world his whole life because of his mom dying.

Host B: And just at a young age, prime a river. Blame the world for your mom's death.

Host: His dad Jim, died from Calora, which is an infection of the intestine. I don't know if I'm saying that right. Hopefully I am. Among other things, he had other illnesses. So that was just the tip of the iceberg. His sister turned mother, Gertchud, had a family of her own to take care of, and his brother will disappear a couple of years ago. And he was, like, kind of come back into Jimmy's life. So Jimmy was just on his own and doing things at a young age. Now, this is part of the reason I wanted to talk about Jones parents, because Jimmy literally enrolled in the University of Chicago without a high school diploma. Which, it's crazy that it's possible back then that you can just enroll into college without a high school diploma. I wish I could have just been like, you know what? Screw high school and let me just go apply to college.

Host B: Yeah, they're going to base it off of what, database or nothing.

Host: Like they can't ask for your transcripts because you know how transcript?

Host B: Well, guess what? You just type them out.

Host: Like, let me get my typewriter and fake it. Fake it until you make it. He dropped out later and then reapplied again, and then he headed towards a degree in science. After Jimmy graduated, he was just talking with some friends and was like, you know what? I'm going to be a doctor. So Jimmy did what everyone was able to do back then, apparently, and just became a protege of Dr. Oliver Olmsbury Almsbury at Rush Medical College. This put Jimmy on his path, where he would have a 40 year career as a dermatologist and syphologist. syphilist. I don't even know. I'm guessing it's something with syphilis syphilis. I guess this is where the pain comes. If you put your mind to it, you can do it. No, just kidding.

Host B: Some people shouldn't do that.

Host: Just making it easy to enroll in college and getting him out. Medical degree, though.

Host B: Jimmy back in my day, I could go and do this and that's.

Host B: She became a doctor.

Host: No, she didn't become a doctor. She actually was a well established poet for 46 years. And she went from editor to staffer with a monthly magazine, poetry, a magazine of verse. And then Marianne went unrecognized for having saved the magazine during the depression. And also for stepping in as co editor when the magazine's chief was drafted for World War II. That's kind of foreshadowing, though, on what Joan's life is about, not getting credit.

Host B: What about drafting?

Host B: They saw the goonies.

Host: Yeah, they saw The Goonies, and they would do plain air painting.

Host B: It was like 40 years, 50 years before that.

Host: Just let her live her life. Let Joan live.

Host B: You're listening to Lincoln Park and watching The Goonies. Holy ****. That's my kind of night.

Host: No, they would go to Lincoln Park Zoo or, like, out into the country. I just called the boonies, because that's.

Host B: What I call they say, The Goonies.

Host: The Boonies, and they would do plain air painting. Do you know what plane air painting is? No. Good thing, because I wrote it down. If you don't know what that is, it's basically just you're escaping from the inside confinement of a wall.

Host B: What?

Host: You're escaping from the confinement of walls. Like, you're just outside in the moment, enjoying your painting.

Host B: Why don't you just say, I'm just painting?

Host: I know. Joan and Jimmy did not really have a close relationship. She would constantly crave his attention throughout her life, and she would also want to punch him at times, as well. Her father was super critical of everything she did, and she would often paint in her closet at night. Later in her career, this would be where she would create her works at night.

Host B: That must be a huge closet.

Host: Not in a closet. Just like at night. Sorry.

Host B: In the closet. I was like, wow.

Host: I mean, technically, if you think about it, if you have, like, one giant room, you could technically call it a closet.

Host B: Or since it's back in the day, she painted in a wardrobe, not a closet.

Host: Like Narnia.

Host B: Like Narnia. Maybe it was, like, a magical place. You went to a bigger spot.

Host: Yeah. Never know. Part of the reason why she painted in the closet was so that she.

Host B: Could see it, is the closet.

Host: Well, and when she was a kid okay. Like, when she was a kid, part of the reason why she painted in the closet was to get away from her father.

Host B: I'm just testing you.

Host: Okay. You're just making sure I know where I'm at.

Host B: Yeah, you passed.

Host: All right. Good to know. From a young age, joan got the nickname Bullet Head. You see why? As we dive into she had her life. Yeah, of course. Exactly.

Host B: I'll fix her in that.

Host: No, she did.

Host B: Your leader.

Host: But at a young age, she would attack challenges or people head on and used her fear to drive her. This would be how she coped with a lot of things later in her life. Now, Joan saw things differently from other people. When Joan looked at letters, she saw color, and she also felt color. At a young age, Joan knew she wasn't like the rest of the kids and even adults around her, she knew she wasn't like that. This is called synesthesia. This is a neurological condition, which one of the senses triggers perceptions through another sense. Now, Joan had the most common, which is colored letters, but there are many others. For instance, some people can smell, sight, or even taste shapes.

Host B: Imagine having that ability and then just farting. Really? Like, loud and stinky. And then what color? I wonder what color that would generate.

Host: I don't know. We need to find people that have this.

Host B: If you're listening and you have that ability, let us know what a fart looks like, color wise or feels like.

Host: I don't think it's specifically to fart.

Host B: I don't know. You say, like, smell, taste. I'm just wondering. Hashtag wondering.

Host: Okay. All right. Joan not only was able to see color letters, but she also had emotional color synesthesia. Basically, what that is, is when your motion is color, and she can see that, so she can see your emotions of color.

Host B: Like Daredevil.

Host B: Wait, let me guess. She broke her ankle.

Host: No, actually, she got her knee bastion, like Tommy.

Host B: Yeah, that sucks. Sucks to be her.

Host: Yeah. No, she didn't break her angle. She actually attended Smith College in Massachusetts, where she majored in English. Before I get to her years in college, we're going to backtrack just slightly. Remember how I said her mother worked for Poetry magazine? Right. Well, one day, Joan wrote a poem called Autumn. Her mother read it, loved it, and Marianne submitted it to the magazine. And this is crazy, because that means that Joan, at just ten years old, would become the youngest person to be published in Poetry magazine. So not only was she making waves in figure skating, but she also was the youngest to be published in this magazine. Side note, we're going to talk about Timmy Osado real fast, because this man makes an appearance a couple of times throughout Jones life. Basically, they became sporadic lovers. Timmy went to school at Parker with Joan. I mentioned him because even Jones first husband says he was the real love of Joan's life. But now Timmy would leave Parker and join the 442nd niagi Bridgement I don't know if I said that right where he would win a brown star, and I just wanted to mention him because when I say Timmy later on, it's this guy that I'm talking about.

Host B: Got it. I'll write this down.

Host B: I think if I was her, I would put on my skates, get a ton of paint, and just skate around the ice and just splatter paint everywhere and make a cool piece out of it. Both of your passions into one.

Host: Yeah, that sounds pretty cool, but I doubt they would let her do that because you're more stressed back then.

Host B: Or use my skates as, like, a pallet knife and cut up the candor zone.

Host: All right. While attending Smith College, joan was placed in Parker house. This is where she was housed with about 45 other females. Now, Joan wasn't a very likable person. She made two friends in the house pretty fast, but others were not really keen to her. They considered Joan to be unkind and rude, and she often took harsh digs at fellow housemates. And the language she used shocks them by shock. I mean, she literally said, ****. And these women were like, oh, my God, so shocking. Like, how dare you say that?

Host B: How lady?

Host: Like, I know you swore. EO. Gross. I literally wrote in there, which I guess, at the time was not ladylike. It's just stupid. I feel like this is just like some stupid patriarchy back in the day.

Host B: Yeah, I know.

Host B: Fascinating. That's so cool, though. I like that.

Host: Yeah.

Host B: Like a small world. Just kick them out.

Host: What do you want?

Host B: Punch him in the football. What do you want to be here for?

Host: Dude, I know, he didn't cover what you want.

Host B: I don't want to.

Host B: Wait. She slept with Picasso?

Host: No, I said liking Picasso artwork. And she would get in trouble for sleeping with certain people that were not of the communism party.

Host B: Just regular American.

Host: Yeah, pretty much. Now, Joan, with all that she's embracing in her world, her friend Zuka, which she met at Oxbow during the summer, and Zuka would become one of Joan's lifelong friends, head to Mexico for the summer. A lot of artists during this time sought out inspiration from Mexico, and also because of the affordability at this time, and they managed to take portable easels, turpentine, and everything else you need, and ended up going to Guanajuato. Did they say that right?

Host B: No. You're like, 2 miles off.

Host: What is it?

Host B: Guanajuato.

Host: Guanajuato. I feel like I butchered that stuff.

Host B: Gunajuato.

Host: Joan was enthralled by the realness that Mexico had. She often would sketch up portraits and ideas in her sketchbook to later paint in Joan's paintings. During this time, her figures look almost uncomfortable with just everything that she would do during this time. And there's one particular painting, so the craftsmanship and her paintings are really shaky, too. And the mark making is not your typical confident strokes you would later see in your Mitchell paintings. So this is just kind of out of the realm of what Joan Mitchell's paintings would later become.

Host B: Even a fun fact. What one Ajato is known for their mummies.

Host: It looks like me in the morning.

Host B: They have a ton of mummies, and they're just everywhere.

Host: They're just chilling, like, on the side.

Host B: Of the road very well, caverns and stuff. They're all from, like so can you.

Host: Go to a mummy museum?

Host B: Yeah. I'm showing you pictures.

Host: I know. That's cool.

Host B: Continue. Sorry.

Host B: Go home. You're drunk.

Host B: No. Sound French to me.

Host B: And then that's how Barney got a show.

Host: Yeah, he became the dancing purple dinosaur.

Host B: When Jamie Lovato yeah, it's Lena Gomez. Clean up. Clean up.

Host: All right. New York. Oh, wait, I messed that up. Picking up where we left off with Joan, then moved from France back to New York. So Joan tried to get into galleries in New York, but was rejected. And an art dealer named Julius Carl Bach told her, if only you were French and male and dead, then that was when you'd get a show. So you'd have to be dead to even get your work featured in a gallery. I don't know why society hated on women being creative or in the fine arts. Ridiculous to me. But during Jones'time in New York, she got close with several artists, such as Landy Cooney and Helen Frankenthar. She soon established a studio on 11th street and dived right back into her work like she was back in France again. So you might be thinking, oh, wow, look at Joan. She's married, doing her thing. Seems super happy, right? Well, yeah, wrong. Well, in sets in. Good old Mike Goldberg. Now, Barney and Joan had a rocky marriage. I mean, we can already tell because literally convert to marrying him so she could come back to the States. So Mike just rocked out a little bit more, and soon an affair started, and it was mainly all about sex and alcohol and more sex. I think Joan was just also drawn to Mike because he was a painter as well, so they had this type of connection. But also, I don't think Joan even wanted to marry Barney and just married him so that she could get back home from France.

Host B: Wow.

Host: But I don't know. That's just my opinion on that. I don't know for sure. So we see a shift in Joan's work during this time period, and she started to dilute her paints and change the way she used her paint. Instead of outlining and seeing shapes joan, stop. What are you doing?

Host B: Oh, I'm sorry. Trying to see if I can lick my nose with my tongue.

Host: Instead of outlining and seeing shapes, joan started to blend them together, and movement was more prevalent in her works. Joan moved studios at this time, so maybe that helped her, because she brought in new friendships from the move of the different studio. Now, you know how Mike and Joan were in this love affair. Well, Mike decided to write a check to himself, but it wasn't his money. He was getting it from Barney's account. So he forged a check of $400 and signed Barney's name, while Barney never used this account. Oh, by the way, I should probably backtrack and let you know that Barney was rich. Clearly, considering he moved her back, I think the ticket was like, $980 just for one of them to move all the stuff back. So today's money, that's like five grand. I'm just kidding. I don't know.

Host B: He fooled me.

Host B: Now, wait, she wasn't dead or a guy?

Host: I know, right? Crazy. She actually got in. Now, Joan's personal life was not going so hot. Not only was Joan having an ongoing affair with Mike, but she was also seeing this dude named Evan Herman. Yes. She's still married, by the way. So Barney wanted a divorce. Own tried to stay with Barney, and she wanted to have an open type marriage. Remember how I mentioned she was friends with Elaine de Kuning? Well, Elaine de Kuning and Bill de Kunning, their marriage was an open marriage where they basically stayed together and then went and had affairs outside of the marriage and they were okay with it. So Joan wanted to have this with Barney, and I think mainly because Barney had money and was able to help fund her studios and all this. But Barney was like, yeah, no. Bye.

Host B: She a gold digger.

Host: I don't think she's a gold digger because she also. Comes from money. Remember her mom's a Harris.

Host B: But wait, her mom's a what?

Host: A Harris.

Host B: Harris, like person that does hair harris.

Host: No, I don't think it was necessarily for the money. I think it was because, like, you know, back in back in the day, man was supposed to, you know, support.

Host B: It'S about the money.

Host B: It's French labeled in no, I don't.

Host: Think it was like it's not like an English and a French thing. It's like they were actually called different things.

Host B: Yes, because they're in a different continent.

Host: John would meet John Paul Riopelli, and the two hit it off because for the next 20 years of Joan's life, she would be with John Paul. Because I don't want to butcher it. I'm just going to call him JP. How about that? JP.

Host B: Morgan?

Host B: Timmy.

Host: He'S back in her life, and they quickly start another affair. So let me just recap. So she moved to France. She was only there for six months. She met Jean Paul. They hadn't started this whole love affair. She lived a nomadic lifestyle, and she was only there for a couple, like, literally seven months at most. And then she moved back to New York, where she was featured at the moment or was in an exhibition, and then she ran into Timmy, and they had an affair. Quick recap. Now, this affair, though, wasn't just your typical, like, oh, another affair with Timmy, right? Well, Timmy is married, and Timmy's wife is pregnant. So Timmy is a little piece of **** because I was there being pregnant, and I can't imagine, like, wait, you're pregnant? I was pregnant.

Host B: Oh, fine.

Host: She's literally sleeping right over there.

Host B: Oh, yeah.

Host: So I just can't I don't like Timmy. He's just a dig.

Host B: He's a *****.

Host: No, he's just an *******.

Host B: Oh, what? He goes talking from certain body parts now?

Host: No, because Timmy was married, and this affair, it was just horrible. Joan timmy couldn't leave his wife. He wasn't going to leave his wife for Joan. And so basically cut the ties. And Joan went into heavy drinking once again. And I don't think she ever really got out of drinking heavily. But this whole affair and everything that she just started drinking more on top of what she was already doing. Joan was gearing up at this time for her third solo exhibition with Staple Gallery, and literally, she was drunk and just hated her paintings. And apparently her friend Mike yes, the Mike then went to prison for forging checks. Michael Jones.

Host B: I said, who? And I was like, Mike Jones?

Host: Oh, my God.

Host B: It's sad.

Host B: Oh, thank you. She went back to you know what's sad? More sad about this whole thing. She never goes back twice to one.

Host: Yeah, I said that.

Host B: Okay, good.

Host: She came for a summer, and then she went back again the next summer.

Host B: That's it.

Host B: Don tune.

Host: And it gets worse, because you know how Joan wanted to have family and then she had an abortion and then a miscarriage? Well, this lady is going to keep the baby. So this made Joan mad, not so much because of the affair, but because of the baby, because that's something that Joan really wanted, but doesn't ever have since Joan had an abortion. Abortions. I think she was just salty, mainly because our partners were the ones that pushed her to do it. And she really wanted a child, but also, her art career would fall as well. So she was kind of trapped in these mixed emotions. Now, Joan and JP's relationship was not good. Yes, both had affairs, but JP would just sleep with anybody that would notice him. Literally, he would just be talking to somebody. And if they flirted to him casually, he would just try to sleep with them. Joan, knowing he would sleep around, just start having affairs as well, because why not, I guess? And this resulted in Joan being aggressively jealous, and John Paul saw no reason to change his ways so late in life. So this is just a huge, hot mess, and they're just going at it. Hot temper and just I don't understand.

Host B: Why be with someone if you know they're a cheater if you cheated? I don't know. It's just weird. Like, if you knew they were a cheater to begin with, they're not going to change. I don't know where no, it's true.

Host: But I think you have to put a perspective. She was an alcoholic. She was a female. During that time, if you were single or you lived with roommates, you were considered a lesbian. And that was even worse than just being with somebody that was having an affair. And then she wanted to push herself in the art career. And then on top of it, she was on this medication that basically watches, basically, like, Adderall or Mess mixed in that's supposed to hear her depression and.

Host B: Find a nice person that's not a cheater. Not rich, hashtag, a regular dude.

Host: Call joan up and be like, Yo, Joan.

Host B: Me?

Host: Yeah.

Host B: Is she still alive?

Host: No, she's not. Spoiler alert.

Host B: Sorry, I can do a seance thing. Circle.

Host B: Mike.

Host: My Jones.

Host B: God ****, you felt good.

Host B: So she never went to no.

Host B: Surprise.

Host B: All right, it is my turn to take over the mic. This is a segment called the drink history. Did you know the history of tequila? Tequila is actually a drink that is distilled in the western part of Mexico, and there's actually a town called Tequila. It is about 40 miles outside of Walajara, and the whole town is surrounded by the blue agave plant. So that is mainly the main area where it's developed. It's grown, harvested, distilled, and bottled, all in the same area in tequila. Fun facts. Did you know tequila has an actual place of origin? It can only be distilled in five regions in Mexico guanajuato, Mitokan, Nayerid, Tamalepas, and Jalisco. Though far away from the largest producer, is Jalisco, which is like the main place.

Host B: He's getting cancer.

Host B: She was a bad ***.

Speaker C: All right.

Host B: What?

Host: Yes, she is.

Speaker C: She is a badass art history adventure. I hope you enjoyed learning today. The resources I used are Joan Mitchell Lady Painter Life by Patricia Albert and Joan Mitchellfoundation.org. I'll be posting pictures of some of the works I talked about in today's episode on Instagram, as well as photos of Joan. Thank you to you, the listener. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And I'll be back next week. Bye.