Michele Oka Doner read selections from A Seed Takes Root: A True Story and signed copies on Saturday, October 14th at 10am at Wasserman Projects in Detroit, MI
11.5" x 8.75"
72 color pages, hardcover, smyth sewn binding
Cloth cover with gold foil
Published September 2023 by Tra Publishing
ISBN: 979-8-9866406-4-8
A Seed Takes Root: A True Story, by acclaimed artist Michele Oka Doner, is an homage to the natural world and to one very special banyan tree in particular. The lyrical text is paired with evocative original artwork by Oka Doner inspired by (and at times incorporating elements of) a much-loved banyan tree in Miami Beach that has been a presence in her life since childhood. A book and work of art that defies classification, A Seed Takes Root is simultaneously an art book, a poetic meditation, a memoir, a fable, and a tale suitable for children and for readers of all ages.
Michele Oka Doner is no stranger to Michigan, a resident from 1963 to 1981, during which time she received both her BS + MFA from the University of Michigan. Oka Doner was given her first solo museum exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1978 featuring a large scale floor installation "Pages I + II" which was reinstalled at Wasserman Projects alongside the addition of "Pages III + IV" in 2018.
Oka Doner's work in sculpture, furniture, jewelry, books, and design is fueled by a lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world. From her early fascination with the centennial banyan trees near her childhood home in Miami Beach to the trees that surround us on city streets and forests and gardens of New York, she continues to consider the symbiotic connection between nature, art, and human life. “I feel embedded,” she says, “in the veins of leaves. I looked at those and I looked at my hands as a child—I knew it was the same as us.”