The new book, "Intuitive Alphabet," is a slim, precious volume, beautifully designed and bound, and the closest many of us will ever get, alas, to owning anything from Michele Oka Doner, a supremely talented and distinguished artist whose work has been honored many times by her peers and cultural institutions.
LEFT: A portrait of the artist. RIGHT: Michelle Oka Doner holds on to a banyan tree, garbed in what's become her signature, all dressed in pure white.
These recognitions and honors include, among many others, an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by the University of Michigan, her alma mater; the Pratt Legends Award from Pratt Institute; the American Institute of Architects Citation Award for Art in Architecture for "Wave and Gate"; and the Lydia Winston Malbin Prize at the Detroit Institute of Arts. She’s been an Artist in Residence in the Invitational Residency Program at the American Academy in Rome, and a Michigan Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Fellow in Residence at the University of Michigan. The Knight Foundation; the New York State Council for the Arts; The Kress Foundation, and other grant-giving arts institutions have also recognized her work.
Oka Doner is from a family of artists; her mother and maternal grandfather were painters. Her father was in public service, Judge Kenneth Doner was mayor of Miami Beach for eight years.To understand and appreciate Oka Doner’s work,one needs to have an insight into the forces that shaped her as a young girl growing up in Miami Beach, including the natural world of the ever-present seashore on this barrier island and the lure of found objects on that beach that sang out to her.
She’s written extensively of her love of the natural world and her empathy for the objects of that world play a significant role in her art. She is truly sui generis, one of a kind, and though perhaps not a household name to some,very many lovers of art – and others – have seen, and actually walked onto her art at the Miami International Airport.
Walking on art, well, that is an interesting and lovely concept, is it not? And not a claim that many artists can make, having had thousands walking on what they have produced and causing it no harm while providing great pleasure to the senses.
LEFT: A Walk On The Beach. RIGHT: A Walk On The Beach, in mother of pearl light tones, contrasting with the ebony dark tones of the first walkway at Miami International Airport.
Oka Doner’s rich imagination designed and articulated the amazing and magnificent walkway throughout that airport. We travelers know it well and marvel anew at its undulating and mysterious beauty on every trip we take out of and back to Miami at the airport. "A Walk On The Beach" (1995/1998) and "A Walk On The Beach: Tropical Gardens" (1996-2010), is made up of some 9,000 bronzes embedded in ebony terrazzo ("The Beach") and mother-of-pearl ("Tropical Gardens"). At approximately two miles long, these are, together, arguably one of the largest works of art extant and, in fact, been dubbed one of the “Eight Wonders of Miami.”
The book, "Intuitive Alphabet," is very much in the natural style of these MIA walkways, but on a much, much tinier scale, a size perfectly suited to be held in one’s hands and enjoyed for the simplicity and impact of its photographs. It is a beautifully designed book. Oka Doner has read the objects she’s found in nature – here, objects washed up on the beach, shells, corals, debris – with an artistic eye, seeing what many of us, we non-artists, would not see at first glance. (Or many other glances, for most of us, to be frank.)
But look at these tiny objects, the shapes, for instance, of my favorites here, in B is for Body. Yes, these so resemble ancient, primitive sculptures of female fertility symbol. Look harder, as they do, indeed. And the next photo – C is for Crab, after these several bodies, yes, a crab, shell and all, jumping out from the page and fixing the eye! Perfect.
Some will make you stop and think, others will make you laugh. T is for Toe is one of the latter, gleeful in its audacity. Another that will bring a chuckle is N is for Nose. Sure. we’ve seen many a proboscis like this! But would we have seen it in this piece of coral if the artist had not pointed it out? L is for Leaf, by contrast, looks just about exactly what it’s meant to be, as does H is for Hexagon, but G is for Ghost? Look harder! There it is, in all its ghostly glory. Boo!
U is for Upset takes some work, as does F is for Frown, for those without Oka Doner’s intuitive imagination, those of us not as tuned in to possibilities of shape and form, but the examples of F is for Face are right on, eerily so. Looking at these photos will sharpen the instinct, I think, making one look for more in what is in front of the eye, to give nature that second or third look and then enjoy the result of that closer scrutiny.
Intuitive Alphabet is a primer for the imagination and an enchanting look into the mind and sensibility of a true artist, a local Miami Beach artist who has made a sterling name for herself in both the national and international art world. Hers is a unique talent.
This little book is a gem. It will provide great visual pleasure and stimulate the senses.
"Intuitive Alphabet," by Michele Oka Doner, TRA Publishing, 2017. Design by ILONA Studio in collaboration with Michele Oka Doner, Photography by James Dee, $27. https://www.trapublishing.com/
