Maira Kalman is one of my favorite living artists, and also a friend (though she was a favorite artist before we became friends). Her children’s books are extraordinary (Next Stop, Grand Central is a great piece of kids’ non-fiction), as is her product design (her multi-lingual building blocks, not pictured, are great), though she is probably most famous for her “New Yorkistan” cover of The New Yorker, done in collaboration with beau and fellow artist Rick Meyerowitz.
For the past few months, Maira has also been drawing and writing a great blog, “The Principles of Uncertainty,” on TimesSelect, the subscription-only site of the N.Y. Times. Here’s the good news: this week, the Times is giving free access to TimesSelect. So go ahead and gorge on Tom Friedman and Paul Krugman and Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd, but make sure to leave an hour or two, hopefully late at night when your mind is ready to travel a little further than usual, for the unique stylings of Maira Kalman.
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Such fun— thanks for pointing us to the superlative tassels!
Such fun— thanks for pointing us to the superlative tassels!
hmmm.sounds like it’s more about the new york times than it is about maira here…….
hmmm.sounds like it’s more about the new york times than it is about maira here…….
As imperfect as language is, some things simply need to be expressed in art, art which is capable of expressing a large portion of everything else more perfectly.
Kudos, Maira.
An Illustrated Philosophy Primer for Young Readers
Precious Life – Empirical Knowledge
The Grand Unifying Theory & The Theory of Time
http://www.geocities.com/donaldwrobertson/index.html
Art Auctions (80-some paintings listed to date:
http://www.artbyus.com/auctions.php?a=6&b=4807
As imperfect as language is, some things simply need to be expressed in art, art which is capable of expressing a large portion of everything else more perfectly.
Kudos, Maira.
An Illustrated Philosophy Primer for Young Readers
Precious Life – Empirical Knowledge
The Grand Unifying Theory & The Theory of Time
http://www.geocities.com/donaldwrobertson/index.html
Art Auctions (80-some paintings listed to date:
http://www.artbyus.com/auctions.php?a=6&b=4807
I found this site quite by accident, reeled in by a Barack Obama mention, and then the verbal sparring about international/interracial adoption. I did not see anything beyond the Feb. 6 one-page verbal sparring, though I was being drawn in.
Are you familiar with a blog, abirthproject/wordpress.com? I found a discussion there about transcultural adoption and the onus of the parent to acclimate to the oft unfamiliar waters of the adoptees’ first culture/heritage, in an effort to afford a level of intimate displacement that might approximate that of the child as he/she grows up in this country.
I’m writing because of the fortuitous siting of mention of Maira Kalman – I absolutely love her children’s books about Max, love the wit, the charm, the facetiousness, precociousness, absurdity and presence of the dreamer attributed to the young up. My children are just becoming old enough to find the books’ multi-faceted stories deliciously engaging.
I never knew she had this other life, but I am excited to sample. Thanks for the info!
I found this site quite by accident, reeled in by a Barack Obama mention, and then the verbal sparring about international/interracial adoption. I did not see anything beyond the Feb. 6 one-page verbal sparring, though I was being drawn in.
Are you familiar with a blog, abirthproject/wordpress.com? I found a discussion there about transcultural adoption and the onus of the parent to acclimate to the oft unfamiliar waters of the adoptees’ first culture/heritage, in an effort to afford a level of intimate displacement that might approximate that of the child as he/she grows up in this country.
I’m writing because of the fortuitous siting of mention of Maira Kalman – I absolutely love her children’s books about Max, love the wit, the charm, the facetiousness, precociousness, absurdity and presence of the dreamer attributed to the young up. My children are just becoming old enough to find the books’ multi-faceted stories deliciously engaging.
I never knew she had this other life, but I am excited to sample. Thanks for the info!