Maira Kalman and Roz Chast at the ICA / Boston
Thanks to my great friend, Sally, who discovered that Maira Kalman and Roz Chast were going to give a talk at the ICA (the new Institute of Contemporary Art) tonight and snagged two tickets. I adore both of these artists. Kalman is a writer and illustrator, has written 12 children’s books, collaborated with designers like Isaac Mizrahi and Kate Spade, and done New Yorker covers. Chast is a New Yorker cartoonist and recently collaborated with Steve Martin on an alphabet book for kids. It was so great to hear them speak tonight because they are wildly devoted to their wildness and we got to see their work and hear them talk about it. It was especially great to see that Kalman has a new book—
The Principles of Uncertainty
Sally and I each bought copies immediately. I flipped through the book in the half-lit auditorium straining my eyes until they were hardly fit for the drive home in my wee, ancient Miata. We stuck to the right hand lane of Storrow Drive and I kept the speed down to less than 30 mph. Sally clutched the books to her bosom. We paid full price and I see now we could have had them for half the money on Amazon, but not so immediately and we needed them that badly.
Roz Chast was incredibly funny and effortlessly, sincerely, self-effacingly so. You could only wish she was your best friend even though you love your best friend very much. You would be glad to ink her into your address book and hope to have jolly evenings with a bottle of wine and a few steamed mussels in an Italian restaurant somewhere, anywhere. She was that nice. And funny. And we get to see her cartoons every week in The New Yorker. She submits seven every week just to have one accepted and sometimes none. But usually one.
Roz’s new book is—Theories of Everything
It was a life-changing night. I’m having quite a few of late. The changes are so rapid and, well, exhilarating that I’m forced to take notes. Note 734—art need not be black or even serious. Humor is fine as in life. A saving grace. A grace, at least. I can now see light in the tunnel. Thank you, thank you, Maira and Roz.
And this morning my friend, the photographer, Mark Peterson and I hung our show that opens this weekend at the Joy Street Studios in Somerville, right outside Boston. It was an art day and a great one. More soon.
