Rochester NY: Memorial Art Gallery, Maira Kalman Exhibit/The Elements of Style

Day trip to Rochester to see the Maira Kalman exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery. Love Kalman's work. Unfortunately, no photos allowed, so here is the bookcover of The Elements of Style that she illustrated. You can get it here. The show was wonderful. All the illustrations were done in watercolor, gouache and were suprisingly small. The regional art exhibit was also up and was great, but again, no photos allowed. Most of my photos were of objects from their permanent collection. I was pretty impressed with the variety of time periods from Egyptian, Medieval, to Impressionist and some Asian Art as well. Lots of sculpture...loved the folk art too:) They also have a nice restaurant inside where we had lunch. Then it was over to the Eastman House, former home of George Eastman. Didn't have time to go inside so we just quickly wandered through the back and side gardens. Rochester is a really vibrant city, so much to do and see...definitely going back for more.

Maira Kalman And the Pursuit of Happiness

The New York Times "And the Pusuit of Happiness Blog, about American democracy and posted/published on the last Friday of every month online, is a favorite. I love Maira Kalman's illustrations and how she weaves them with her hand drawn words. It is really simple but profound really. I especially like her "Soldier No. 53"from May 29th "At Ease" post. Like children's drawings, her illustrations are straightforward and this is, I think, what makes them so powerful. These are the drawings of some former very young students (first and second grade) from my museum classes. Watching these young children make art were some of the best art lessons I have ever had.