Girolata 1964

Joan Mitchell made "Girolata" using oil on canvas, and look at that brush! It's a dance of greens, pinks, and blues, a whole garden blooming on these three panels. I imagine Mitchell, brush in hand, circling, lunging, maybe even wrestling with the canvas. The paint's not just lying there; it's built up, scraped away, a real conversation. Those thick strokes of green, like chunks of earth, or maybe memories. And then the thin, scratchy lines, like whispers or secrets. I bet she was thinking about her life, about other paintings she saw, other painters she knew. Painting is like that, you know? It's a big, messy conversation across time. Like, you can almost see de Kooning in there, but she’s doing her own thing completely. That one blue slash—what does it mean? Maybe nothing! Or maybe everything. The point is, Mitchell's not telling us what to think. She's inviting us to feel, to wander, to get lost in the paint. It's never over, this painting thing.