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Arts & Entertainment

A Conversation With Yoko Ono

The artist and activist talks with Patch about music, art and an exhibit of John Lennon's art that's coming to Princeton.

When asked if John Lennon scheduled time to work on his drawings and artwork, Yoko Ono is quick to say no.

“He was not a scheduled person,” Ono says. Rather than specifying a time to draw, the music legend would start creating whenever he felt like it, she says.

“It was great that he had this talent of doing artwork because when we were in a conference with all the lawyers, and maybe 20 lawyers together, it’s so boring,” she says. “And he would just start to do drawing. He would never sort of waste any time, he was like that.”

Drawings, sketches and poetry by Lennon will be on view in “Gimme Some Truth — The Artwork of John Lennon,” at Palmer Square in Princeton, Sept. 16-18.  The show will feature sketches, free-hand drawings, caricatures and illustrations in pen, pencil and Japanese Sumi Ink and will help benefit the Mercer St. Friends Food Bank.

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The exhibit takes its name from a song Lennon wrote and recorded for his 1971 album, “Imagine.” It’s a song that expresses anger, but Ono says her husband’s drawings show a playful side of him that his music often didn’t.

“In music, I think it was easy (for him) to vent his anger as well,” she says. “But how are you going to (share) anger in drawing? Well of course some people do, I know that, but he just didn’t do that. He was feeling good about things.”

Lennon, of course, became one of the most famous people on the planet as a member of the Beatles. He and Ono married in 1969. They recorded music together, went through difficult times (including attempts by the U.S. government to deport Lennon, and an 18-month separation) and then had a son, Sean, who was born in 1975. John was murdered outside the Dakota in New York City in December of 1980 following a recording session.

Ono devotes much of her time to sharing her husband’s music and art with his fans. When asked about the importance of exhibits, like the one coming to Princeton, she says she wants people to remember John’s life and message.

“It’s a constant reminder to people about John’s spirit, and John’s spirit was a very potent, extremely popular one but also believing in world peace, and he wanted to spread that message,” she says.

The title of the exhibit is fitting, she says, because it shows a true side of Lennon.

“Artwork is something that you really show yourself in,” she says. “When you go there to see the show, you will sort of understand all of that, but at the same time, you come back (feeling) like, ‘I don’t know why I feel warm, I feel so good about it.’ That’s what John’s work does.”

Ono also keeps her husband’s music alive through projects like last year’s reissue of “Double Fantasy.” The new package features a “stripped down” remix of the album, along with a new master of the original version.

“It’s just a miracle that happened,” Ono says of the album, which was released weeks before Lennon was murdered. “We were just thinking, ‘OK we’re going to do it.’ We didn’t know it was going to be our last thing, we thought that that was the beginning… well, you know, you never know, do you?”

Ono’s most recent album is 2009’s “Between My Head and Sky,” which was produced by Sean.

“That was amazing,” she says. “It was a surprise in a way because I didn’t know he could be so disciplined.” She says that because she and Sean had previously worked on an album, 1995’s “Rising,” when Sean and his musician friends were 16 and weren’t so disciplined.

“It was a mess, but somehow we managed to make it a good album actually,” she says. “They were talented kids but they were not disciplined. This time, I thought, ‘Oh is it going to be like that again?’ No, he was so disciplined, it was incredibly creative as well. I really enjoyed making that with him.”

When it’s suggested that her son was more businesslike this time, she looks for a different word. “I wouldn’t say ‘businesslike,’ that’s not very complimentary,” she says. She does, however, give her approval to the word “professional.” 

Ono also works on her own art, which is currently part of a group show in Houston’s Colton & Farb Gallery. One of her works is a piece of public art, an “Imagine Peace” billboard off a Houston highway.

When asked if she ever gets tired of spreading the message of peace, she responds, “Are you getting tired of breathing? You know what I mean, there are fundamentals things you have to keep on doing, which is to make sure we are mentally and physically healthy. And to make sure we can be mentally and physically healthy, we have to keep on bettering the world.”

With so much having been written and said about her husband, Ono says it’s Lennon’s kindness and gentleness she wants people to know about him most.

“He cared about people that most people don’t care so much, if they’re very famous and busy and all that,” she says. “Once we were walking in New York City, and there was a bag lady who wanted to get some money from us and of course we gave some. And he said, ‘You know, there’s a very, very short distance between that bag lady and us. We could almost be that one.’

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“It was that kind of understanding, all the time, not just giving the money. He felt that there was a short distance. That’s beautiful, I think, don’t you? He was that kind of person.”

“Gimme Some Truth — The Artwork of John Lennon “is on view at 19 Hulfish St. (next to Kitchen Kapers) in Palmer Square, Princeton, Sept. 16-18. Hours are: Sept. 16, 5-9 p.m., Sept. 17, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sept. 18, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. For information, call 609-406-0503 or visitMercerStreetFriends.org.

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