Kim Doner was left by Gypsies on the front porch of Betty and Otto Doner on July 21, 1955 (at least, that was always their claim).As a small child, her favorite day was Saturday and her favorite activity on that day was to rise early (the only phase in her entire lifetime to have such a requirement) and watch “Jungle Theater”.This usually afforded her a weekly fix of a favorite character, Tarzan of the Apes (the only true Tarzan being the actor Johnny Weissmuller).She, too, wanted to live in a jungle treehouse and call elephants for taxi rides when she grew up.
Kim had big dreams of becoming a Ballerina Veterinarian Artist as an adult, and although she has not evolved in such concrete terms, she actually DOES perform on stage, rescue animals and create books!She is a Big Supporter of nurturing dreams, and is not shy about encouraging anyone and everyone to do the same.
Background
Kim snuck in the back door of publishing when, several years ago, a Tulsa-based small press approached her to illustrate their first picture book venture.She waffled her way into a contract, busted her fanny to learn all she could about the business, and has not looked back since.Always one for a good story, Kim realized her place in life was to become an illustrator and writer.She is, and always will be, in the process of that “becoming”.
Books
Besides making life-sized paper dolls, decorating 7’ tall penguins for the Tulsa zoo, spending 80 hours on her knees to create faux marble floors, designing puzzles and jingles and song lyrics and clip art for schools and libraries, painting portraits, rescuing and raising and photographing wild animal babies, firing dichroic glass jewelry and wine bottle trays, drawing storyboards and thumbnail ideas, and learning to play the djembe, one might ask what else Kim Doner does.
Thank you for asking. She imagines, researches, sketches, notes, plans, writes and rewrites and draws and redraws then illustrates children’s books. Then, she makes school visits to talk about it.
On top of CD covers and magazine articles and educational text, Kim has illustrated numerous picture books, several of which she has written.Some of her awards include numerous rounds as a finalist in the Oklahoma Book Award list, plus the Oklahoma Book Award for illustration, Foreword Magazine’s Best Children’s Book, Publisher’s West Best Children’s Book runner-up, and Bookbinder’s West Best Children’s Interior book.Her award-winning artwork has been featured in museum shows and even traveled around the world, representing Oklahoma in a two-year tour of children’s book illustrations.
Speaking
Usually, this is not a problem.The problem is getting her to shut up! Okay, on a more serious level (since you ARE sitting there, reading this, and probably for a purpose), Kim has presented to organizations all across America to the other side of the pond and down the road... actually, on a road... in Africa.Her latest book focuses on a day in the life of a wild animal rehabilitator who happens to contribute her time at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage in Kenya.After nearly a month with dynamo Chryssee Perry Martin, aka “Mama Orphanage” - her official title in Kenya, Kim returned to Tulsa with inspiration for her latest picturebook, On a Road in Africa.Her current presentations include a number of demonstrations that tie drawing and writing to math and science as well as her core material titled, “From Idea to Reality: How a Book Becomes a Book”.Here she elaborates on the development of On a Road in Africa and performs the story with digital slides and an African drum.
Native blooms Gardeners hope to inspire native planting
Kim Doner, a local animal rehabilitator, admires some of the native flowers growing in her backyard. Doner's home is one of five featured on the 17th annual Wildlife Habitat Garden Tour and Plant Sale. CORY YOUNG / Tulsa World
By MATT GLEASON World Scene Writer Published: 5/20/2010 2:24 AM Last Modified: 5/20/2010 3:53 AM
The manicured front yard, explained Tulsan Kim Doner, it's for the neighbors. The backyard, well the backyard is for Doner, a wildlife rehabilitator, and her husband, Dennis England, a clinical social worker and native plant gardener.
In the couple's backyard, not far from Oral Roberts University, native Oklahoma plants rise up and rehabbing songbirds chirp where there was once just a few sycamore trees and a whole lot of flat dirt and patches of Bermuda grass.
See it, and four other gardens, Saturday and Sunday during the 17th annual Wildlife Habitat Garden Tour and Plant Sale.
England was inspired to create his compact ecosystem — complete with islands of plant life designated the prairie, marsh and woodland — after seeing Ron and Susan Hull's animal-friendly space during the 2006 tour and sale.
Doner recalled: "They had a flicker family in a dead tree, and active hives of bees in another. There were tons of butterflies all over the plants, and each 'island' created was dense and inviting to birds and other critters. The Hulls even had honey from their hive."
England said, "It had a lot of life to it and really inspired me to do something different."
Something different meant taking a rototiller to his backyard to rid it of Bermuda grass, then starting over with help from several native plant nurseries in the area. Overall, England's goal has been to create an interactive space.
"Most gardens," he said, "people just look at them — 'Oh, that's a beautiful flower.' I wanted something that you could go in and be surrounded by it, experience it, interact with it and be among the plants."
It's also a place to be among his wife's rehabilitating songbirds, including a blue jay with a mending broken leg, all kept in a large aviary strewn with grape vines. And, at least during a recent visit, two baby raccoons kept in a pet carrier after they were rescued from a Broken Arrow attic. Doner, who is a state and federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator, will care for the raccoons until they are released back into the wild.
Doner is a freelance artist who is sometimes inspired to create artwork inspired by her rehabilitating animals. Beyond that, Doner has written and illustrated children's books, including "On a Road in Africa." It was inspired by her month-long stay at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage in Kenya, where Tulsa native Chryssee Perry Martin is the primary volunteer. Doner will sell copies of the book for $16 during the Wildlife Habitat event. She will donate any profit from book sales during the tour to the Tulsa Audubon Society.
During the tour, England hopes visitors walk away inspired, just as he was in 2006.
"I'm hoping that I'll inspire others to want to go plant some native plants themselves," he said, "even if it's just a shrub here or there, or a few flowers, or a little bit of native grass to be an ornamental grass with their non-native stuff bought at Home Depot."
Rainbows, Head Lice and Pea-Green Tile (author Brod Bagert)
Buffalo Dreams
Foreword Magazine Best Children's Book
Publisher's West Best Children's Book runner-up
Bookbinder's West Best Interior book
Oklahoma Book award finalist for both illustration and writing
The Philosophers' Club (author Christopher Phillips)
Oklahoma Book Award finalist
Q is for Quark (author David Schwartz)
Cryptomania! (author Edith Hope Fine)
On a Road in Africa
Oklahoma Book Award finalist for both illustration and writing
The Donna Norvell Book Award was established in 2005, by theOklahoma Library Association to honor a book that has made a significant contribution to the field of literature for children through third grade.
OCAI:How did you get your idea for On a Road in Africa?
Kim: Like countless children across every continent, I've always been fascinated with Africa. I loved Tarzan books and Tarzan movies as a child, never questioning where Edgar Rice Burroughs got his ideas. It was an amazing discovery to find that Edgar Rice Burroughs NEVER visited Africa! He dreamed up the character while waiting on a shipment of pencil sharpeners and hoping for some quick cash writing pulp fiction. Go figure!
But it was too late: the concept of living in a tree house, hollering for elephant taxis, and being best friends with a chimpanzee were all firmly entrenched on my wish list. The closest I could get to such a situation in Oklahoma was to throw myself into the world of wildlife (and I don't mean merely having a family, although that can certainly be wild most of the time). I began rehabilitating baby birds and mammals, working with my vet, the zoo and our county game warden to release healthy youngsters back into their habitats. This led to an introduction by mutual friends. A former Tulsan, Chryssee Perry Martin, was back in her hometown visiting. I met her at a girlfriend lunch one day, and three hours later, she and I had a plan: for me
to travel to Nairobi and stay with her and her husband. I would be immersed in her world, where she had also rehabilitated wildlife for many years. We could create a book together, which could help fund the constant needs of the wild orphaned babies of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage - where Chryssee had led the volunteers for over 35 years.
OCAI: Which did you enjoy most, writing or illustrating this book?
Kim: I think I liked the research the best! :)) Actually, the writing and the art went hand-in-hand, so this is a difficult question to answer. The writing was certainly easier - once I had captured the rhythm I felt in that country, the cadence flowed.
I did several rewrites, some by myself and many with my editors. But the scenes demanded hours and hours of concept, sketch, research, resketch, compose, resketch, final submission for the designer, review, resketch and then get to draw the spread. Once the spread was drawn, I'd get to actually start on the art! The final illustrations tooks hundreds of hours of work. But the research for the book... well, spending a month in Africa scratching the ears of a hyena and rocking a baby chimpanzee to sleep was pretty darn satisfying...
OCAI: Which comes first, the illustrations or the words, and why?
Kim: Neither comes first - in my head, I usually can't tell the difference between words and vision. It's like both areas of my brain join together to create "vords". Okay, I made that up. But I've found what's far more important than breaking down origin is what I do about it. In Buffalo Dreams, the vision came to me when I opened the pages of a magazine and saw a baby white buffalo. The five-year-old Kim Doner firmly stated that she wanted to pet the baby white buffalo in that photograph, and I heard/felt/saw the possible scene in my mind.
OCAI: Thanks Kim! We look forward to your next book! Kim: You're welcome!
