Dreamlogue & Interpretaccione: Yoko Ono & Brad Pitt's Art Class

YOKO ONO & BRAD PITT’S ART CLASS

I walk into a bright, daytime, natural light-filled art class. A frumpy-looking Asian woman with inch-long white roots in her earlobe-length hair is a guest speaker. Although she looks far different than her media appearances, I realize, partly from the distinctive shape of her lips, that she is Yoko Ono. On a white screen in the middle of the class room is a huge potted plant – an evergreen tree. It is braced by metal to the screen and an orange colored paint is dripping from the bottom of the plant intentionally. Yoko’s making a statement again and she explains this statement to the students, of which, for various reasons, I am not one. I am standing at the front of the classroom, watching as a co-guest, friend, peer, and frustrated visual artist. Watching Yoko’s process and sharing I am hit with the decades-long knowledge that I don’t want to be an art student, but I desperately want to be a conceptual artist. I want to take objects, manipulate and display them as my means of communicating feelings and concepts my music and writing can’t, or have not yet conveyed. I am filled with longing and by the time Brad Pitt comes to lead the class after Yoko’s leaving, I am ready to burst with tears of frustration.

I pray and plead to the Universe, “I want to make the kind of music I want, write about my life, and make visual art. How do I do that successfully?” I received an answer from within, from my highest self, from the God I am a part of, from the Universe, from Wisdom. “Make music, write, and make visual art NOW. That is how you will create the resources that will support those actions – by the doing, not the dreaming alone, and certainly not by the longing alone.” I already have the answer by the time Brad is willing to see me privately so that I can ask his guidance and support as well.

I go to him with my army duffel bag stuffed and heavy. As I approach, he can see the sadness in my eyes and his eyes soften in response. By the time I reach him, and put my “burden” (of a bag) down, it’s taking all my energy just to keep the sobbing at bay. I ask him, “How can I be a successful musician, writer, and artist?” Then, as I wait for his answer, I awaken and it never comes because it is already within me. The answer is faith, persistence, courage, hope. The answer is the art work itself. The answer is for me to feel successful right now.

ADDITIONAL INTERPRETACCIONE

Yoko Ono is a successful multi-media artist whom I have admired and respected a lot since my discovery of her in my early teens. She, like myself, is an Aquarian – years ahead of her time, quirky, innovative. Her hair is a projection of how someone’s appearance can affect their image – after my recent transformational experience of frump hair to glamorous hair.

Brad Pitt is one of the most competitive artists around, but that’s not what I admire about him (although that probably has much to do with his level of success). He’s very intelligent and has an ease in his body and with children that I am working on in my life. All these things make him a better actor (or did becoming a good actor make him a better athlete, better with children?), in the same way that my running is improving my instrument/vehicle, for my music, my writing, my art.

The significance of my being on the side of the classroom, as a peer and not a student, goes back to when my boyfriend took me and his other girlfriend to see Rage Against the Machine. He was friends with the band and we sat in the tour bus hanging out with the sound guy, Brian for two hours before the show, missing both opening acts (the Spectrum, Philly). When we finally went to the show, after drinks and conversation on the tour bus, we sat, not in the audience, but on the stage itself, at the side.

In this dream, I am not a student, but not on the level of Yoko nor Brad either, I am something in between, a guest. If I were on their level, I would not feel the frustration of wanting to do what they were doing, nor would I be asking Brad his advice for how to become successful as an artist.

This dream taught me that I can look to artists for inspiration, and as examples, and models of who and what I’d like to become and accomplish, but I choose not to look to them as teachers nor for The Big Answers to my Big Artistic Question.

This dream is showing me that the best answers to my questions come from within. I need to all ways look within. Through prayer, meditation, and through the doing of my art/work. For example, in the past the answers to my questions about music have often come from being in a sacred zone space of singing and chanting with my guitar, for example. God and the work.

Significance of the duffel bag: The bag represents my pre-successsful state (of mind). I carry this bag on solo travel or subway gigs. It holds my clothes and CDs – things I would (will) not need to carry if (when) I had (have) a full band, crew, tour bus, etc. I look forward to the time when all I will need to carry is myself and one knapsack with laptop to blog to my fans from the road. Cute guys will carry everything else so help me god.

The bag also represents my thoughts which were holding me down like a burden. There’s no reason I can’t feel successful now, even if I have not yet reached all of my professional goals. In fact, feeling successful will assist me in accomplishing them more quickly.

(c) 2008 by Cassendre Xavier a.k.a. Amethyste Rah. All rights reserved or something really bad will happen.

For previous Dreamlogues & Interpretaccione, please visit www.groups.yahoo.com/group/cassEndrExavier. Oh, and iff’n you like “Dreamlogue & Interpretaccione”, you’ll love “One Lucky Girl” and “Green Smoothie Raw” blogs, all viewable at www.myspace.com/cassendrexavier or www.cassendre.livejournal.com. Of course, there’s “ME! ME! ME! The Cassendre Xavier Newsletter” (which no one really should be without), also available at the aforementioned.

Cassendre Xavier is a self-described “renaissance negresse”. Although she also enjoys the craft of acting, and making visual art, this first generation American of Haitian and Chinese heritage is mainly a musician and a writer. As a singer-songwriter/guitarist, Cassendre has released 7 albums of music Borders described as “a cross between Tracy Chapman, Sade, and Enya” (Steven M. Wilson). Her sound has also often been compared to that of Roberta Flack, Joan Armatrading, Joni Mitchell, Pheobe Snow, and India.Arie, among others. Her latest musical recording, “Live at Tin Angel” was honorably mentioned as #9 of “Top 21 Local LPs of 2007” (M.J. Fine, Philadelphia City Paper). Under her self-assigned soul name Amethyste Rah and featuring the music of Thaddeus (Sanaya Roman), she has a growing line of spoken word/guided meditation recordings called “Affirmations for Survivors”, the first two being “Spirituality” and “Self-Love”. Her “snappy and redeeming” (Karen Gross, Philadelphia City Paper) multi-genre writing has been published nationally in various literary anthologies and periodicals, as well as previously self-published chapbooks “secrets and lies: poetry & other words” and “Making of a Woman/Artist: a book for every black girl and every black woman who has ever wanted to be an artist”. She wrote, directed, and starred in a 5-actor play called “Sex for Survivors” which ran for three days in the Philly Fringe Festival 2003. An award-winning cultural arts advocate, Cassendre is the founder and former director of several arts initiatives in Philadelphia including the Women’s Writing & Spoken Word Series (Robin’s Bookstore, 2002-2006) and the Black Women’s Arts Festival (The Rotunda and other venues, 2003-present). She received a $15,000 Leeway Transformation Award in 2005 for her work in art and change. Now reinventing herself as a musician and writer in her native city of New York, Cassendre practices an active, raw vegan lifestyle, braiding her own hair extensions, and getting as many naps and hot dates in as possible. Visit often at www.cassEndrExavier.com.