Lobby Manager, Christine Brown: My name is Christine Brown. I'm one of the lobby managers in the Visitor Engagement Department here at MoMA.
This is Ladybug by Joan Mitchell. It was painted in 1957.
If you had to put Joan in a category of what she painted, it would be landscapes. And although she wasn't trying to depict nature necessarily in her paintings—it's what she described as: she was trying to paint what these memories, what these landscapes left her with.
I think when you look at Joan's work, people tend to think she painted very quickly and very spontaneously, but that actually couldn't be further from the truth. She was a very deliberate painter. She knew exactly what she was doing. She kept these very vivid visual mental notes. She actually referred to it as her mental suitcase—this mental album in which she would pull her inspirations from. And when I think about that and I think about my own mental suitcase, this painting really comes, together for me and starts to tell me a story. For me, it's definitely one of excitement, but also of chaos and control.
This painting in particular really speaks to me and kind of my own personal history with anxiety. I think I first saw Joan's work back when I was in college, probably another um, peak time for my anxiety. Really now more than ever, just with everything that we've been going through, I keep finding myself sitting in front of this painting.
I invite you—the next time you're feeling overwhelmed or you're feeling stressed—just really take a moment for yourself to just breathe and remember that you're not alone.