Kathabela Wilson and Toti O’Brien
An interview with poet, artist, writer, musician, singer, dancer, explorer and bold experimentalist, Toti O’Brien.
By Kathabela Wilson
A telescope on the artist
How do you see the artist in the world?
I see artists in the world past and present as my family. They’re the people who taught me how to live and what to live for. In today’s world, I also see artists as an endangered species, a dying civilization. Our chance to survive is… to do what you do, Kathabela: value one another, listen to one another.
The pulse of the artist
“Handmade Map” by Toti O’Brien
Your vibrant artistic life seems organic intense and inevitable, why this powerful blend of poetry, art, music, photography, psychology, philosophy?
Art is what I use for digging into life’s depths, into its secrets and treasures. You can’t have too many tools for such exploration! My expressions are organic because they serve the same purpose. They also make me whole. I fully exist only through the interweaving of these fundamentals: dance, sing, play, put words together, put materials together in 2 or 3 D… the list is complete! I wouldn’t be me if I neglected one of the parts, and I don’t.
A microscope on the poet
What are interior qualities, the roots of your artistic life, what makes you an artist?
I was privileged in a way, my parents were articulate, art lovers and surrounded by books. In another I wasn’t (we had very few “things” or toys, lots of unstructured time, lots of solitude). It’s a dynamite mix: I had to occupy myself with my imagination and whatever I could find at hand. I guess I’m still doing it. My grandmother, a simple housewife, gave me the earliest art lessons. She liked writing letters. She always said: if the writer is crying, then the reader will cry. I didn’t need to learn more about authenticity.
Mapping the artist
Toti O’Brien
How does Pasadena and the surrounding area, color and influence your work, how do different places figure in your art?
I am a displaced person: I’ve been through the entire immigration process twice and that marked me. Places are relevant in my artwork because I don’t take them for granted: thus I love them more. I came to Pasadena 10 years ago, I was forced to leave for 3 years but yearning to come back. I consider it my place of choice: it’s where I’ve decided to share myself. For a decade I’ve been active in all sections of the local art community: I’ve built my belonging. It’s not a right of birth, it’s a labor of love. Also, I was raised in an orange grove on the Sicilian east coast, full of Mediterranean flavor: Pasadena brings back that familiar taste, and I love it.
It is always a pleasure to think out loud with you, Kathabela. You are such a kin spirit, such a soul sister: we speak the same language.
! Look through the kaleidoscope of Toti’s art here.
The One That I Like
by Toti O’Brien
Of all lives
that you gave
me I sincerely
choose this one.
Yes it’s true
that I enjoyed
the pirates ship the
gold the smells
of the sea
being a man
for a change
the thrill ‘n the rush.
Yes I do remember
how I wanted to be
Egyptian Queen
the silver the myrrh
my long hair
curly lashes
the scarab
at my neck.
I remember the
fun with Napoleon’s
army in the Russian
snow ‘n
the ermine fur
when I was a
paramour
at the Tsar’s court.
Oh the sunset too
sweet and peaceful
in my Japanese
garden
with the Fuji
mountain
majestic
cutting the sky.
Yes it has been
all gorgeous ‘n just
what I asked for
believe me though…
the life that I like
is this one
where whatever
happens
is happening now
where
whatever happens
it does it to me.
________________________________________________________
So much energy in Toti and in her art. Of all lives given her and forced upon her, she sincerely chooses this one, and does very well with it.
What a wonderful interview. I love Toti’s breadth of understanding, her color and life and all of her art. Thank you for bringing this to us, Kathabela and thanks to Toti for all her brilliance and sparkle.