Maira Kalman On the Art of Starching the Sheets

“[In my mother] I was observing somebody doing something beautifully and doing something with all of her heart. Not to show off, not in vanity, not with egoism, just with a sense of accomplishment of doing something well. And you can’t miss that, when you see somebody doing that. It wasn’t lost on me that that was a way of being an artist.”

Maira Kalman was born in Tel Aviv and moved to New York City with her family at the age of four. She has written/illustrated over 30 books for adults and children, been a frequent contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker, and created textiles for Isaac Mizrahi and Kate Spade and sets for Mark Morris. Other collaborations have been with Nico Muhly, Alex Kalman, Michael Pollan, David Byrne, John Heginbotham, and Gertrude Stein. Her watch and clock designs appear under the M&Co label, the design studio created by her late husband Tibor Kalman. She has won many awards and given numerous talks, including several TED talks. Her art has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. Her latest book is Women Holding Things.