works were born so raw, so blunt and sometimes so violent. Not romantic at all. And certainly not sweet at all, like songs from the Pop mainstream field sometimes sound and taste. But never her own of course, since she never belonged to any stream -and main ones, the least of all... "The streets were never really mine. Not mine, not mine these glamour gowns" (The Boho Dance, from The Hissing of Summer Lawns / 1975). Today, I wonder : was I wrong in making some of those paintings the way I made them? Was I right? Indeed, I never considered right or wrong at that time: I just had the urge of painting. So it is hard for me to judge. There is only one person who could. In the Eighties when we met, she saw many of these works for real, there before her eyes. Twice. And then life moved on. It was a long time ago. It was yesterday.
But the only thing I am sure of, is that this kind of yesterday has remained as precious to me as it ever was by then. And always will be.

Therefore, because Shine was Joni Mitchell's last studio album, how could I have dreamt of a better ending to this chapter than some lines written by Joni Mitchell herself, and which so fully describe this optimistic pessimist's soul ?... This warrior with a heart bigger than the world -even if she declared once that she had lost it. A warrior defined by her art and her music, by the grandeur of her battles, her ethics and her philosophy of life, her humanity and her unrivalled insight and knowledge of the human soul.

"I know you'll be all right, 'Cause you've got the fight, You've got the Insight"