Referring to the landmarks that punctuated McGee's "routine" life during wartime, Joni Mitchell mentioned : "Tokyo Rose on the radio". The singer cited "Tokyo Rose", a Japanese Propaganda program, broadcast in English and intended to undermine the morale of Allies, -and a show quite famous at that time. However I understood she described an element of decoration in Molly McGee's home, because I did not pay attention to the capital "R" in the word "Rose". This ambiguity enabled me to evoke symbolically a time of war when the two evil powers of the Axis Nazi Germany and Japan raged. Hence, I imagined that Joni Mitchell was talking about a vase with a "Tokyo" variety rose, placed on the radio that gave out news of the conflict.

Therefore, I fancied a vase showing the Japanese flag. Which made sense when considering other elements of the text, such as the "Nazi dread", symbolised in my painting by booted soldiers marching in goose step and making the Nazi salute. The fact remains, however, that I do apologize to Joni Mitchell : this rose (with a small "r") placed in its Japanese vase (in a painting she never saw for real since it was made after our last meeting), was no more relevant in The Tea Leaf Prophecy than was the priest wearing a "pornographic watch" on his wrist in The Boho Dance! Put the blame for these petty misunderstandings on an incomplete knowledge of English -and the inevitable communication flaws between people, since the Babel incident...

Before leaving at dawn, I offered Joni Mitchell a painting that I had made for her and that I had brought with me.

If my memory does not betray me, it was an oil on carton, about two feet by three feet and a half large, on which I represented an episode reported by her in an interview. Her story had had a great impact on me because I found it so symbolic of her commitment to painting, and also very representative of that special magic that characterizes her narrative talent and that makes it so unique.