"Flowers lead to books, which lead to thinking and not thinking and then more flowers and music, music. Then many more flowers and many more books." -The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman
I finally got to the special exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco on Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World) one week before it's departure.
I loved the exhibit but I'm certain you need to be a Kalman fan to appreciate it. And, I know I blogged about Maira last Thursday (10/14) but it was her newest book's debut and now with the museum exhibit; it's been like a double feature! Kalmania!
If I had to describe Kalman in a word I would probably use the term WHIMSICAL! I find her gifted, charming, creative, self deprecating, optimistic one minute yet despairing the next. She's a bit of an enigma.
Kalman describes herself as someone who makes grand statements and then does nothing! Basically Maira Kalman has made a career out of observing things and sorting out what she likes and doesn't like and then drawing and writing about it. How great is that?
Born in Tel Aviv in 1949, her family immigrated to America when she was 5 and Kalman has been a New Yorker ever since. She describes her Jewish mother as a little mad but funny while she claims her father was biologically devoid of humor. Writing about her childhood, Kalman states: "Facts were banished from our house."
Kalman loves New York City and prefers walking to get around. As Kalman notes: "
I walk everywhere in the city. Any city. You see everything you need to see for a lifetime. Every emotion. Every condition. Every fashion. Every glory."
Whether Kalman is writing about Abe Lincoln or egg beaters, rubber bands or crazy hats, it isn't simply chaos or madcap. At the heart of her work seems to be her ongoing question about the meaning of life generally. Or, as said by Maira Kalman: "We are here now, and we are not going to be here at a certain point, so what is that about?"
