one enchanted evening...or, an hour with maira kalman
last night i hopped on up to the lincoln center barnes and noble to see and hear the great maira kalman, as she promotes one of her latest endeavors, an illustrated version of strunk and white's elements of style.
there were serving an apple aperitif at the event (so fancy at the barnes and noble these days!) and shortly after i settled into my seat, ms. kalman took to the mike. and because i'm a super-dork, i took notes. she read a few lines from eb white's essay, "removal," from a volume that she picked up at flea market about 4 years ago, as an example of what she loved so much about eb white's writing--it is "cinematic and vivid."
she said the most difficult part about this "elements of style" project was the editing. what she loved about elements, and saw as its essence, is that in the face of this set of rules, one is called to ride the "wings of your own instincts"-- this volume represents not "grim rules," but is meant to "inspire fantastic tangents and flights of imagination."
the event was not a traditional "author reading selections from their work event"--after ms. kalman made a few remarks, she quickly segued into an introduction of her latest collaborator, nico mobley, a young composer, who wrote 9 songs as a companion to the elements project. he had a small group of musicians with him (a percussionist, a violinist, and i think someone on keyboard, and 2 singers). they performed 3 songs ("overly over," "the use of the passive voice," and "his first thought..."). it was kooky and haunting and melodic and absolutely in tune with the spirit of ms kalman's body of work. after the musical portion of the program, ms. kalman and mr. mobley answered questions from the audience.
as to the question of the marriage of her art and his music, she expressed that she was actually singing all while she was working on "elements," literally singing the words. she had been trying or considering musical theater with other projects (i.e. the children's books) but this was the first time it really came together. she said with this, everything was "so natural," she didn't have to think about it too much, it just happened. and inquiring minds wanted to know how she met mr. mobley--she has known mr. mobley since he was 12--both families were living in rome at the time.
we also learned that she grew up in riverdale and attended the high school of music and art--for music! she was a pianist as well as a chorus member. she says she is never not listening to music...and when she was working on elements, she listened to a lot of lorraine hunt lieberson and renee fleming.
she was asked if she paints from her imagination. she said that there is so much "per square inch of looking" that she doesn't really have to -- she looks around her and then "allows herself to digress madly and irrationally." she amasses clippings, and collections of things, takes photos...all of those things, plus her dreams and weird visions, inform her work.
she was also asked why this particular book did not have a jacket! she said because it was hot.
her real answer was that she didn't actually like having jacket covers on her books--she hated them. they get torn and fall off... another reason she insisted on not having a jacket for this--she didn't want it to be viewed as an art piece or a coffee table book. she wanted this to be a real book, a reference book, that people actually used, but one with really great art inside.
and she pointed out that the red linen cover itself was quite lovely.
there were serving an apple aperitif at the event (so fancy at the barnes and noble these days!) and shortly after i settled into my seat, ms. kalman took to the mike. and because i'm a super-dork, i took notes. she read a few lines from eb white's essay, "removal," from a volume that she picked up at flea market about 4 years ago, as an example of what she loved so much about eb white's writing--it is "cinematic and vivid."
she said the most difficult part about this "elements of style" project was the editing. what she loved about elements, and saw as its essence, is that in the face of this set of rules, one is called to ride the "wings of your own instincts"-- this volume represents not "grim rules," but is meant to "inspire fantastic tangents and flights of imagination."
the event was not a traditional "author reading selections from their work event"--after ms. kalman made a few remarks, she quickly segued into an introduction of her latest collaborator, nico mobley, a young composer, who wrote 9 songs as a companion to the elements project. he had a small group of musicians with him (a percussionist, a violinist, and i think someone on keyboard, and 2 singers). they performed 3 songs ("overly over," "the use of the passive voice," and "his first thought..."). it was kooky and haunting and melodic and absolutely in tune with the spirit of ms kalman's body of work. after the musical portion of the program, ms. kalman and mr. mobley answered questions from the audience.
as to the question of the marriage of her art and his music, she expressed that she was actually singing all while she was working on "elements," literally singing the words. she had been trying or considering musical theater with other projects (i.e. the children's books) but this was the first time it really came together. she said with this, everything was "so natural," she didn't have to think about it too much, it just happened. and inquiring minds wanted to know how she met mr. mobley--she has known mr. mobley since he was 12--both families were living in rome at the time.
we also learned that she grew up in riverdale and attended the high school of music and art--for music! she was a pianist as well as a chorus member. she says she is never not listening to music...and when she was working on elements, she listened to a lot of lorraine hunt lieberson and renee fleming.
she was asked if she paints from her imagination. she said that there is so much "per square inch of looking" that she doesn't really have to -- she looks around her and then "allows herself to digress madly and irrationally." she amasses clippings, and collections of things, takes photos...all of those things, plus her dreams and weird visions, inform her work.
she was also asked why this particular book did not have a jacket! she said because it was hot.
her real answer was that she didn't actually like having jacket covers on her books--she hated them. they get torn and fall off... another reason she insisted on not having a jacket for this--she didn't want it to be viewed as an art piece or a coffee table book. she wanted this to be a real book, a reference book, that people actually used, but one with really great art inside.
as for current/future projects: she's working on a book about the history of shoes, and another on the history of hats. (and "the shoes come with socks, and the hats come with hair.") she also is in talks for this elements of style project, with mr. mobley's music, to be a traveling piece.
then she signed and drew in our books...
i definitely said something earnest, but not terribly clever, about how happy her work has made me over the years. and she said that she would remember that when she was having a sad day. which i thought was maybe a good thing...
posted by lahat at 10:42 PM
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