Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 2, 1 February 1989 — Mandala Art Fuses Hawaiian, Hindu Symbols [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Mandala Art Fuses Hawaiian, Hindu Symbols

Momi Baker Ojha

by Maxine Mrantz Special to Ka Wai Ola O OHA

Momi Baker Ojha's artistic career is almost as variegated as her paintings. She's a Native Hawaiian artist who has combined Hawaiian and Hindu deities into energetic expressions of healing power. Her show, titled "O Mauli-Ola Mai Maloko Mai," or "Healing from Within," is on exhibit February 5-26 in the main lobby of the Queen's Medical Center, 1301 Punchbowl Street. The show focuses primarily on what Ojha calls the positive power of the mandala symbol, and expresses the cultural fusing of the Hawaiian and Hindu religions.

A rarity in a specialized age, Ojha's equally at ease doing religious paintings, T-shirt designs, commercial illustrations, graphic design, and eomputer art. After years of working for others, she's decided to go into her own business as an artist. It's a present she promised herse!f upon the occasion of her son's graduation. Married to a Hindu, Ojha is Hawaiian-Chinese and traces her Hawaiian ancestry back to Adam Baker, a British sea captain who married Chiefess Luka Pupuhi, a retainer in the court of King Kamehameha IV. The Chinese side is from Hannah A'ii who married one of Adam Baker's descendents.

Ojha, named Marietta, is Momi to her Hawaiian family and Mei Ling to her Chinese family. Although she feels that raising a family is important, Ojha's been a liberated woman for as long as she ean remember. She values her independence and credits this partly to Elfrieda Hermann, her mother, whose family had impressive business interests on Maui and the Big Island and to her Chinese great-grandmother Mrs. Akana, who owned and operated a Hawaiian souvenir shop on Front Street in Hilo.

Ojha's an army brat with an impressive grounding in European culture and the arts. Her father was a Chief Warrant officer who moved the family to Europe, Japan, and mainland U.S. The product of many different schools, Ojha feels that many moves fostered her sense of independence and self-reliance. She does admit however that socially she was out of it at school in Haleiwa where emphasis was put on sports and the outdoor life than on concerts, art museums and the ballet. Speaking of her difference, she admits, "1 was the only one who eame as Cleopatra at Senior Day." She can't remember a time when she didn't want to draw or paint. "Painting's something you do because you can't bear not to."

In Europe she read lots of classical literature. In Hawai'i she haunted the libraries both in downtown Honolulu and Schofield Barracks. Hawai'i schools quickly utilized her talent; she designed displays for Leileihua High School but found chemistry tough going. At theUniversity ofHawaii at Manoa, she drew pictures in her notebook instead of taking required French notes. Her French teacher, who admired her scribbles while deploring her mastery of French, passed her with a C-minus.

" 'O Mauli-Ola Mai Maloko Mai" by Momi Baker Ojha at the Oueen Emma Gallery, Queen's Medical Center, February 5-26. Gallery hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily

A 1966 UH graduate with a fine arts degree, she credits Betty Kawohiokalani Jenkins (now an OHA kupuna) with recommending her for a four year University of Hawai'i scholarship given by the Wahiawa Hawaiian Civic Club. Speaking of that gesture, Baker said, "I might otherwise not have gone to college. It gives you the incentive and pride to make good when you realize that someone believes in you."

To get into further touch with her Hawaiian background, she took a summer course in hula with Billie Beamer who was the athletic director in those years. She also took a chanting course but her chanting career was cut short when her dorm mates complained that it was difficult to study while listening to her. She swears that hula class was a karmic experienee. Her husband, Nara, a Brahmin, was attending UH on an East-West Center grant and working for his Biochemistry PhD. The lone male in a class of 30 women, he proved to be a better hula student than she was, topping her C with a B of his own.

The two of them eloped, and by the time graduation eame around, Ojha not only had a fine arts degree but a baby boy as well. Her strong feeling of family responsibility kept from her full time work for two and a half years, although as a student, she had done a stint working in Liberty House doing hard line drawings for the ads. Later, she resumed work as a commercial artist for Myers Advertising Agency, and for C. Brewer, and did administrative work for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. At Crazy Shirts she was a custom order designer for five years until she "grew tired of drawing the same old marathon design." During her T-shirt period, she created original designs and logos for Honolulu Marathon Association, Hono-

lulu Symphony Guild (fun-run designed shirt) and Harley Davidson. As the senior graphics designer at the Queen's Medical Center she worked extensively at computer art and design. Ojha's accomplishments and recognitions are impressive. She has been a professional graphic designer/illustrator for 25 years and is a current member of the Graphic Designer Association. She has had solo shows at the YWCA Lobby Gallery on Richards Street, and group shows with Uhane Noa and Hale Naua III, the Native Hawaiian Artist Associations. Her works have been purchased by the State Foundation of Culture and the Arts, corporations, and royalty. In 1986, she traveled to

Nepal to execute a commission for a religious painting for His Majesty, King Birendra of Nepal. She has recently been commissioned by The Queen's Medical Center to do a commemorative poster whieh she will personally sign at the unveiling of their new maternity service ward on March 12. A tireless and exacting researcher, Ojha may spend several months reading up on her subject, especially if it involves Hawaiian culture. She believes in channeling time so as to get more done more creatively.

"Ku and Hina, Gods of Prosperity."

"Aumakua, Hawaiian guardian angel"another of Ojha's show pieces, features the sakti, a Hindu mystic symbol whieh incorporates the male-female triangles to form the six-pointed star. The dot in the center is the "bindu", whieh is the center of concentration used for meditation.

Momi Baker Ohja

"Flying Bhairava," one of the pieces in Ojha's show, depicts a Hindu god, a manifestation of Siva, guardian spirit of Nepal, and destroyer of evil.