(Paintings Interview of Joni Mitchell by Rene Engel © KCSN-FM December 21, 1999)

That was one of my first abstractions. I did three, and one - called Abundance and Decline - destroyed itself. It was just background. The two remaining paintings from that period were done with latex and house paints and all that Pollock stuff, and that made it fragile and impermanent. I missed things to see what they would do and they split open and revealed the chemistry of the painting, which was very unstable. I jumped in and found it very easy. I always found that stuff easy. In a way it was a parody, but I ended up enjoying it, so it helped break down my prejudice. I'm really a figurative painter at heart and so by turning it around, what I see is an Eskimo with mukluks and an extended hand with a piece of ice that looks like a ship with sails.

This painting also appeared in the movie "Vanilla Sky."