Blogging from A to Z Challenge: Y is for Yoko Ono

My theme for the Blogging from A to Z challenge is Creativity. Today I want to spotlight Yoko Ono. She’s always been a controversial person with her politics, lifestyle, and art. Personally, I don’t have strong feelings either way about her and her work. But I do think she’s truly followed her own path in life and creatively expresses herself with her heart and soul.

Here are some highlights from her career as a poet, artist, and film maker:

* Her 1961 “Smoke Painting” was a suspended piece of canvas accompanied by this note: “Light canvas or any finished painting with a cigarette at any time for any length of time. See the smoke movement. The painting ends when the whole canvas is gone.”

* In 1964, she staged her “cut piece” where the audience participated by cutting off pieces of her clothing until she was naked. This was Ono’s commentary on ridding oneself of materialism.

* In the mid-1960s, she collaborated with Anthony Cox, a film producer, art promoter, and Ono’s first husband, in the film Bottoms, which showed close-ups of nude rear ends. The film was banned by the British Board of Film Censors.

* Ono and John Lennon held a “bed-in” during their honeymoon in 1969 to promote world peace. They invited various members of the press into their hotel room to ask questions.

* After Lennon’s death, Ono continued her art and music career. She recorded albums, composed two off-Broadway musicals, and in 2002, saw a collection of her artwork exhibited in New York City, her first retrospective in the United States.

Visit this site for many more details, including pictures, of her life and art.

I believe Yoko Ono was, and is, an artist who “thinks outside the box” like no other!

What do you think of Yoko Ono and her work?