FROM BLOGVERSATION 2012: SOME ARTISTS WHO INSPIRE ME

Over at Newvine Growing, Colleen Newvine is running Blogversation 2012.  Each week, six women (myself included) write a response to a question posed.  This past week, the question we wrote about was "Who or what inspires you?"  Here is my response.  Please check out Newvine Growing for other responses, and feel free to add your own thoughts to the original post!

Eleanor Traubman Says:
February 9, 2012 at 1:31 pm

There’s a bunch of artists who inspire me. Here are some of them:

Faith Ringgold – maker of storyquilts and children’s books
Keith Haring – pop artist
Missy Elliott – rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer
Maira Kalman – designer, writer, illustrator
Eva Zeisel – design legend
Women Film Directors – Nancy Savoca, Allison Anders, Karyn Kusama, Gurinder Chadha, Kasi Lemmons
Jim Henson – King of the Muppets, tv and film pioneer
Questlove – drummer for The Roots and King of Twitter!
Julie Taymor – Director of theater, opera, film
Rokafella – Female breakdancer, Director of the documentary of “All the Ladies Say”
All the women in Creative Conversations, the women’s artist group that I help lead

MAIRA KALMAN NEWS

I recently asked designer/illustrator/writer Maira Kalman what she's been up to and here's what she shared with me:

So nice to hear from you.
Much is happening.

I have illustrated Michael pollan's FOOD RULES and it will be published in october.

He is sensational, as everyone knows.

After that, in january, a book by Daniel Handler that I illustrated called WHY WE BROKE UP is being published.

He is also sensational, as everyone knows.

And then in february a children's book about Lincoln that I wrote and illustrated is being published.

ELLEN, MAIRA, AND ME

Earlier this week, I stopped in friend Ann Lopatin's Blue Ribbon General Store and thumbed through the pages of The Essentials of Fabulous: Because Whatever Doesn't Work Here Anymore written by Ellen Lubin-Sherman and illustrated by Susan Sugar. Annie told me how Ellen had self-published the book, and how it had been flying off the shelves. I thought that any woman who self-publishes has a lot of chutzpah, so I brought a copy home with me.

Ellen, in a highly-entertaining and down-to-earth writing style, describes how we can upgrade various parts of our lives and do them with more finesse, panache, style, and care for quality and impact. She covers, for example, how we treat people, how we conduct our virtual/online presence, how we write emails. She talks about the importance of writing hand-written notes, being warm and accessible, dressing with flair, treating everyone we encounter with respect, showing a passion for life.

I loved this book so much that I wrote a note to Ellen, who promptly wrote me back. Here is our correspondence, accompanied by the framed letter from Maira Kalman to Ellen which Ellen refers to in her email to me.

My Email to Ellen:

Subject Line: Totally Grooving on Your Book / Interview with Maira

Hi Ellen -

I know I should be writing a thank you for your AWESOME book on gorgeous stationery (which is actually something I would ordinarily do) but I wanted to include my interview with Maira Kalman in the note. (I saw that you liked one of her books, so thought the article would be of interest to you.)

After hearing the story behind your book from my friend Annie L. at Blue Ribbon, I decided to buy a copy. To say that I DEVOURED your book would be an understatement; I read it and savored it during all my subway rides over a 24-hour period.

Growing up, I had a grandma who was born at the turn of the century. She wrote letters to me all the time and sent articles that pertained to my personal interests. From the time I was about six, my family wrote each other "blessings," or letters of appreciation at the end of each year. I still have most of those treasures! I'm the person that my friends know as loving stationery and stamps and sending birthday and anniversary cards. (Congratulating someone for special occasions on Facebook just does not cut it!) So it was wonderful to read the words of someone who also takes a stand about the personal touch.

Loved watching your tv interview (and that sassy yellow jewelry - wow!) and will post something about The Essentials on Creative Times and Facebook.

My interview with Maira is below my signature. She just had a magical exhibit at The Jewish Museum!

Keep up the inspiring work, Ellen, and I hope to meet you in person down the road.

Ellen's Email to Me

Subject Line: whoooooooooooooooooooosh

WOWEE!

I am just speechless as not only did I go to the Jewish Museum, I ransacked the gift shop!

Eleanor Traubman, I am just so delighted to hear from you! What a wonderful note and so heartfelt. I'm touched when readers let me know how the book has resonated. When I completed it, I sent it to Maira and inscribed it to her for all the wonderful moments she gave to me and "my" two boys. Of course she wrote back in her inimitable handwriting on Verge de France paper (which I've stockpiled). I framed the note including the envelope. Of course I have everyone of her children's books in my library. I still look at the illustrations.

Then The Principles of Uncertainty. And I knew how to proceed with my book.

Eleanor, you are so fabulous for writing to me. You have given me a whoooosh of excitement for the day ahead.

I wish you well..all good things...they're much deserved...and you are a treasure. Loved your interview with Maira and thrilled to hear she has a "new beau" and I know the loss of Tibor was devastating.

Sending love

RUN, DON'T WALK, TO SEE MAIRA KALMAN EXHIBIT AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM (ENDS JULY 31)

I've been a Maira fan for more than 20 years, ever since I read Max Makes a Million.

A few years ago, I had the honor of interviewing her for my blog. (HERE is the post about the interview.)

So imagine my delight when I found out that the Jewish Museum was featuring a WHOLE FLOOR of Maira's work! Yippee!

Last weekend, Mike and I went up to the museum and had a great time looking at her paintings, objects she has collected, and videos of/about her, including her TED talk.

There was such a light, happy feeling on that floor. And I was so pleased that a whole floor was dedicated to a Jewish woman artist.

The museum display board beckoned us down to the cafe for some lox, but lo and behold, they were out of lox. So we bused over to the top of Fairway to have lox sammies.

Then made our way down to Crate and Barrell to use a gift certificate to buy simple shiny white new dishes.

What a great day!

Here's text from the Jewish Museum website about the Maira exhibit:

Welcome to the first museum survey of Maira Kalman’s narrative art. Working as an illustrator, author, and designer, Kalman illuminates contemporary life with a profound sense of joy and a unique sense of humor. This exhibition features a selection of original works on paper that span thirty years of illustration for publication. Also on view are less widely seen works in photography, embroidery, textiles, and performance. As a context for this survey, Kalman has created a special installation by furnishing the gallery with chairs, ladders, and “many tables of many things”—drawn from her collections.

Kalman speaks of her work as a form of journalism. She uses writing and drawing to render an ongoing account of the world as she sees it. Hers is a daily discipline of creativity based on photography, travel, research, walking, talking, and open observation. A serious love of distraction pervades. Abundant depictions of fashion, food, art, and architecture represent life’s great pleasures. At the same time rubber bands, pieces of moss, bobby pins, and snacks stake a claim for smaller forms of satisfaction. All of this might seem pretty trivial were it not for the counterweight of history, memory, and loss that is also ever-present. Chaos is another constant, be it crazy and madcap or simply devastating. Indeed, it is her work’s gift to illuminate those things that affirm our own capacity for joy, sadness, humor, charm. In short, Kalman’s art inspires our humanity in light of life’s overwhelming events and details.

—Ingrid Schaffner, Senior Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania

About Maira Kalman

Maira Kalman (b. 1949 Tel Aviv, lives New York) is the author of twelve children’s books including Ooh-la-la (Max in Love). Among her adult classics are The Elements of Style, an illustrated edition of Strunk and White’s timeless grammar, and The Principles of Uncertainty, a picture book of essays based on a yearlong online column for The New York Times. She has just completed a second online epic for The Times titled And the Pursuit of Happiness. Kalman’s best known work, created with fellow illustrator Rick Meyerowitz, is New Yorkistan: a cartoon map of the city designated by tribes, such as Pashmina, Irant, and Irate. When it ran on the cover of The New Yorker in December 2001, it sanctioned a first burst of laughter in the aftermath of 9/11. A relatively more secret aspect of her identity is as the “M” in M&Co, the revolutionary design firm founded by her late husband, Tibor Kalman, with whom she was a constant collaborator. The firm’s famous 10-One-4 watch is based on one of her doodles. She has collaborated on projects with the fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, the choreographer Mark Morris, and the composer Nico Muhly.

GOOD NEWS FOR MAIRA KALMAN & LYNDA BARRY FANS

While browsing the book store, I discovered that Maira Kalman has a new book out: And the Pursuit of Happiness.

Here's Amazon.com's description:

And the Pursuit of Happiness is beloved artist and author Maira Kalman's yearlong investigation of democracy and how it works. Energized and inspired by the 2008 elections, on inauguration day Kalman traveled to Washington, D.C., launching a national tour that would take her from a town hall meeting in Newfane, Vermont, to the inner chambers of the Supreme Court.

As we follow Kalman's wholly idiosyncratic journey, we fall in love with Lincoln alongside her as she imagines making a home for herself in the center of his magisterial memorial; ponder Alexis de Tocqueville's America; witness the inner workings of a Bronx middle-school student council; take a high-speed lesson in great American women in the National Portrait Gallery; and consider the cost of war to the brave American service families of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The observations she makes as she travels charm and inform, and-as we have come to expect with Kalman-the route is always one of fascinating indirection.

Kalman finds evidence of democracy at work all around us. And the cast of characters we meet along the way is rousing good company, featuring visits from Benjamin Franklin,Eleanor Roosevelt, and many others. And the Pursuit of Happiness is a remarkable tribute to our history and a powerful reminder of the potential our future holds, from a true national treasure.

I also discovered - and why I did not hear about it before I do not know - Lynda Barry's new book called Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book.

ATTENTION ALL MAIRA KALMAN FANS

I was out at Court Bookstore tonight and nearly lept across the room when I saw a book cover that featured a Maira Kalman illustration. What??!!!! Yay!!!!!!

Run, don't walk, to go peruse this amazing catalogue of her work which ranges from children's book author and illustrator to seamstress to mural artist. It's called Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World).

I interviewed the genius Ms. K for Creative Times. Check out the interview HERE.

MAIRA KALMAN, CREATIVE HEROINE

Call me Max.
Max the dreamer.
Max the poet.
Max the dog.

My dream is to live in Paris.
To live in Paris and be a Poet.

These are the first words I came across fifteen years ago, when I opened the front cover of Max Makes a Million. That moment marked the beginning of my ongoing love affair with the work of author/illustrator/designer Maira Kalman.

I read and re-read and re-re-read and re-re-re read that book, soaking up the way the words were arranged and the way they played off the illustrations. I was amazed by the way that earth tones appeared alongside of sorbet colors to create images that were both whimsical and sophisticated. I was delighted by references - in words and in paintings – to aspects of life in New York City. There, for example, in the painting of “The Museum of Incredibly Modern Art” were the very same black grid chairs in MOMA’s sculpture garden that always left tiny squares in my legs and backside!

I gave the book as gifts to adults and read it aloud to children. I distinctly remember sitting in Barnes and Nobles ten years ago, reading Max Makes a Million to twin six-year-old boys. I came to this passage, and they made me read it over and over again and laughed harder each time that I did:

Bruno and I left the studio. Walking to lunch
we passed the door of the mysterious twins
Otto and Otto
and their two dogs
Otto and Otto.

Then there is my personal favorite passage, spoken by Max himself:

There is an old Chinese proverb that says parents must give their children two things, roots and wings. I have the roots. Now I want wings.

The book, at its heart, is about going after ones dreams ,which is why it has appeal and relevance for people of all ages.

Kalman went on to write and illustrate other picture books, and I relished all of those, too. There was Max in Hollywood, Baby; Chicken Soup, Boots; Ooh-la-la, Max in Love; Swami on Rye; Next Stop, Grand Central; and What Pete Ate. I went on several occasions to see her artwork at the Julie Saul gallery in Chelsea and also visited the Children’s Museum of Manhattan when they featured an exhibit based on Maira's picture books.

I saw Ms. Kalman's artwork appear in many other places - on the cover of The New Yorker, in The Sunday New York Times Magazine and in the newest edition of The Elements of Style. I saw her designs appear on Kate Spade merchandise and was overjoyed to find a mural of hers at Wave Hill Cultural Center depicting its lush and glorious landscape. Most recently, I enjoyed receiving as a gift The Principles of Uncertainty, the content of which came from her New York Times blog of the same name.

Every time I see Ms. Kalman’s work out in the world, there is the joy of recognition same as when I see someone I love unexpectedly on the street or when I see a dachshund dashing by on the sidewalk. Ah! Something I love – there it is again! Hooray!

So you can imagine my surprise and delight when Ms. Kalman granted an interview in her Manhattan abode.

At the door, I was greeted by her dog Pete (as seen in What Pete Ate) . He was dressed in crème color fur and Ms. Kalman in a crisp white outfit.

We all sat down for some conversation.

What has Ms. Kalman been up to these days?

As of late, Maira has been working under the auspices of the Robinhood Foundation and Pentagram Design Studio to create a three dimensional installation for a public elementary school in the Bronx. The central concept of this 3-D collage is that of a wall poem about the alphabet. It will be made of found objects, made objects, drawings, photographs, letters, words, and bits of text from books.

Maira likes the fact that the children will see mundane objects used as art, thus learning that they can create art from the stuff that is right around them.

For the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, Maira is working on a project based on Lincoln ephemera – letters, photos, etc. - in commemoration of the bicentennial of his birthday.

She’s also creating fabric based on maps for Maharam, a New York based textile design company.

Ms. Kalman was once a student at The High School of Music and Art right here in New York. What was that experience like for her?

Ms. Kalman originally went to HSMA for music. Her entrance was based on her skills as a pianist and, once admitted, she also found her way into the choir.
An important part of being at the school was getting the message that an artist is a real thing to be.

Maira went on to attend college at NYU. Her original focus on writing and she added drawing to her repertoire.

Her literary inspirations include Cummings, Austin and Nabokov. She’s currently reading Ulysses which she describes as “a full time job” that is both stupendous and sleep-inducing.

Does Maira collaborate with other artists?

Maira’s collaborations have been with her late husband, her current beau, and well as with a longtime friend and composer Nico Muhly. Her joint projects tend to evolve out and extend from already existing relationships.

Mostly, Ms. Kalman is a solitary worker who is “looking and absorbing in a daydream world.”

What does Maira like to do when she is not working?

She likes to clean things, travel, and walk. “I’d be happy to walk around the world, just not through wars or up steep mountains,” she shared.

Maira’s ideal is one where work and life are integrated in a seamless way where one can “be pragmatic and in another world at the same time.”

Are there other artists whom Maira considers to be kindred spirits?

Yes, and here’s a list of some of them:

Charlotte Solomon, a woman who made hundreds of gouache paintings of her life and who created books which were exhibited. Ms. Solomon was killed by Nazis in the 1940s.

Louise Bourgeois and Kiki Smith, who are both “trying to inhabit a few different worlds at once.” They both tell a narrative story and use imagery made up of dreams, memory, and childhood.

Eva Hess and Matisse.

From the world of children’s books: Lewis Carol, who wrote Alice in Wonderland and, by using humor on different levels, engaged both young people and adults. William Steig. Ludwig Bemelmans, author of the Madeleine books.

What is Maira’s daily schedule?

First, she does early morning exercise with a friend. Then, she spends time in her studio which is also in the building where she lives. Next, she gathers inspiration and ideas by wandering around New York.

Maira also spends a great deal of time traveling.

What’s the story of Maira and dogs? They appear a lot in her books.

When Maira was a child, she was terrified of pets. As an adult, she liked them conceptually. When her children were young, she got Pete – the dog she’s had for the past eleven years.

How does Maira like to spend her birthday?

In a quiet celebration with her family.

A FUNNY MEMENTO FROM MAIRA KALMAN

The other day, I was weeding out my files and I found a note that Maira Kalman wrote to me after I sent her a copy of a children's book I made for my nephew. On the back of the note was the above announcement.

PS - The Julie Saul gallery regularly shows Maira's work. Maira Kalman is a children's book author, designer, painter, illustrator, and editor. Her most recent book is called The Principles of Uncertainty and is based on the work she did as a guest blogger for The New York Times.