Today's Author Event

I saw Maira Kalman speak today. She's quite a talented and interesting woman, also the sort of person who is all over the place, making associations and often digressing. She has her hands in a variety of creative aspects from writing, painting, drawing/sketching, photographing, to music. Her new book “The Principles of Uncertainty” displays her various art forms throughout the narrative which covers one year of her life, asking questions and navigating her way.

Simply, asking what wonderful or beautiful thing you notice in this day, operating from a place of balance between freedom and structure, this made feel like wanting to be more ‘EXPANSIVE'. I haven’t been doing creative work lately, it’s just in my head, no action whatsoever. It’s time to get back to the page and just practice. Thinking is not writing. Writing IS writing. There are also art supplies and collage materials waiting too long to be used.

She mentioned finding material everywhere, just walking down the street in New York. I think a good way to begin is to be open and attentive through our senses each day. Paying attention to daily life here in the city, to what and who I see, noticing the smells, picking up bits of dialogue, which can all amount to any number of ideas or associations. Then taking out a pen and writing down some thoughts or notes. It’s just that simple.

From Amazon:
Maira Kalman paints her highly personal worldview in an inimitable combination of image and text. The Principles of Uncertainty is an irresistible invitation to experience life through the psyche of Maira Kalman, one of this country's most beloved artists. The result is a book that is part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelogue, part chapbook, and all Kalman.

Her brilliant, whimsical paintings, ideas, and images-which initially appear random-ultimately form an intricately interconnected worldview, an idiosyncratic inner monologue. Kalman contends with some existential questions-What is identity? What is happiness? Why do we fight wars? And then, of course, death, love, and candy (not necessarily in that order).

The tremendous success of Kalman's 2005 illustrated edition of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style established her as an original, inspirational voice, and the quirky, hilarious, heartbreaking style of The Principles of Uncertainty reveals Maira Kalman for what she truly is: a national treasure.