Speaker 1: It's always so hard to maintain a sense of hope
Speaker 1: and and not feel so much despairsed. You know, especially
Speaker 1: in these times. We know that there are terrible things
Speaker 1: going on, and we know that there are splendid things
Speaker 1: going on in the world, and you have to look
Speaker 1: for the good. Sometimes it seems like more of a
Speaker 1: struggle and more of a challenge, but really you have
Speaker 1: to face the day and say, there there are good
Speaker 1: things going on, and we're going to look at them.
Speaker 1: That was artist, writer designer Myra Kellman telling why she
Speaker 1: rejects cynicism. She was talking specifically about her work on
Speaker 1: musician David Burns Broadway show American Utopia, but she could
Speaker 1: be describing her approach to any of the dozens of books, paintings,
Speaker 1: and collaborations that have earned her countless honors and fans.
Speaker 1: I'm a land vere in the Ceseneca's One Women To Hear.
Speaker 1: We are bringing you one hundred of the world's most
Speaker 1: inspiring and history making women you need to hear. Myra
Speaker 1: Kalman is probably best known for her famous cover of
Speaker 1: The New Yorker magazine, a humorous map of the city
Speaker 1: labeled New York is Stan. Her children's books include What
Speaker 1: Pete eight from A to Z, an illustrated catalog of
Speaker 1: the bizarre but real items her dog scarfed down, and
Speaker 1: her adult books include an illustrated version of the Grammar
Speaker 1: Guide The Elements of Style. Her next book, Women Holding Things,
Speaker 1: will publish in October of twenty two. Listen and learn
Speaker 1: why Myrack Kalman is one of Seneca's One Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: I'm speaking today to writer, artist, illustrator, and so much more,
Speaker 1: Mara Kalman. Mara, welcome. We're delighted to be able to
Speaker 1: have you for this conversation today. Thank you very much. Now,
Speaker 1: you're a writer, a painter, an illustrator, a designer, a journalist.
Speaker 1: You work in so many media. What is the thread
Speaker 1: running through your work and what are you trying to
Speaker 1: say to the world. The threat is probably a certain
Speaker 1: naivete coupled with optimism and curiosity. And I think that I,
Speaker 1: since I never studied any of these things really seriously,
Speaker 1: I allowed myself to do everything that I want to do.
Speaker 1: And I think that's probably what I want to say,
Speaker 1: is that just looking at the world with a kind
Speaker 1: of wonder and being able to tell your story is
Speaker 1: an extraordinary privilege and really rare good fortune. So I
Speaker 1: think I'm trying to tell people just to look and
Speaker 1: not think too much. I'll start with that. I love
Speaker 1: that answer, and I love the combination of curiosity and
Speaker 1: optimism him. So back in the autumn of two thousand
Speaker 1: and one, just a few weeks after nine eleven, you
Speaker 1: created a cover for The New Yorker magazine that made
Speaker 1: people laugh and feel good about New York. It was
Speaker 1: a map of the city that gave neighborhoods new but
Speaker 1: appropriate names. Swanky areas were labeled Peshmina or Botoxia. Other
Speaker 1: neighborhoods were called Cavetchina or taxi stand. What was the
Speaker 1: thinking behind that cover, which became one of the most
Speaker 1: famous in the magazine's history. And I remember it so well.
Speaker 1: It was one of those moments that you're not looking
Speaker 1: for and you're not expecting it. I get it. In
Speaker 1: collaboration with a good friend, also a cartoonist and a writer,
Speaker 1: Rick Myrowitz, and we were going to a party in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of nine eleven, maybe a few months after,
Speaker 1: still in great shock and in great sorrow, and we
Speaker 1: started talking about New York in what a tribal place
Speaker 1: that was, and that we were driving to the Bronch
Speaker 1: said I think I said wrong, Well, I think we're
Speaker 1: in Bronxis then, And that set us off on a
Speaker 1: complete tangent. And you know when you you when you
Speaker 1: of course, people's job to be funny, and you you know,
Speaker 1: you know when when there is humor that you can
Speaker 1: you can use to to to diminish pain and to
Speaker 1: diminish fear. And that is something that we face every
Speaker 1: single day, especially now in the circumstances now which are
Speaker 1: so extraordinary and so heartbreaking. So our response was to
Speaker 1: make fun of ourselves in a way and say, you know,
Speaker 1: we're all in this crazy world together. Fortunately, David Remnick
Speaker 1: and Prince Wise believe the New Yorker thought thought there
Speaker 1: was a good idea to put it on the cover. Well,
Speaker 1: they're good judges of something that can make a difference,
Speaker 1: and you did certainly in that instance and so many others.
Speaker 1: You've written dozens of children's books as well, and you've
Speaker 1: written books for adults. Of all your books, is there
Speaker 1: a favorite? Is there one the best expresses who you are?
Speaker 1: It's funny because every time I write a book, I
Speaker 1: say this is this, This is it? This is my
Speaker 1: favorite book? And then I say, uh, not so much.
Speaker 1: I'll wait for the next. I hope the next one
Speaker 1: is my favorite. And in fact, now I can say
Speaker 1: that my next one is my favorite. Is called Women
Speaker 1: Holding Things, and it's about what women hold literally and metaphorically,
Speaker 1: which is a lot indeed. And so it's paintings and
Speaker 1: writing about my family, about people that I know, and
Speaker 1: about the nature of going through life with some kind
Speaker 1: of courage and tenacity. Well, it sounds like it's something
Speaker 1: that's going to be extremely inspirational. You and your late
Speaker 1: husband had a design firm, M and Co. You've said
Speaker 1: one of your mottos for the company was we don't
Speaker 1: know anything, We're going to do it anyway. Now, how
Speaker 1: did that play out in your work? It played out
Speaker 1: the same way that it's played out for me in
Speaker 1: my career, in that my husband was very brilliant and
Speaker 1: very fearless, and I learned a lot about not being
Speaker 1: afraid to go ahead from him, that you can have
Speaker 1: an idea, but if you don't act on it, then
Speaker 1: you're really you're a fool. In his opinion, That's how
Speaker 1: it was. And he died ridiculously young, but his his
Speaker 1: impact was very strong. So we always said, if you
Speaker 1: are as I said earlier, if you're curious, if you
Speaker 1: if you approached the world like a journalist with a
Speaker 1: love of beauty and a sense of humor, there's really
Speaker 1: nothing that you can't try. You might fail, but that's okay.
Speaker 1: You know. Winston Churchill said that failure isn't fatal, which
Speaker 1: I said, remind myself every day. Yeah, it's a good
Speaker 1: it's a good thing to keep in mind, especially because
Speaker 1: none of us can live up to some perfectionist model.
Speaker 1: For sure. Absolutely, Senecas one hundred Women to Hear, will
Speaker 1: be back after this short break. You know, I'm especially
Speaker 1: interested in a in a book you did, Bold and Brave,
Speaker 1: ten heroes who won women the right to vote, and
Speaker 1: it features your gorgeous paintings of well known crusaders like
Speaker 1: Susan b. Anthony and Sojourn Her Truth, as well as
Speaker 1: lesser knowns like Alice Paul and Married Church Terrell. Why
Speaker 1: were you drawn to this topic? I was drawn with
Speaker 1: a phone call from Kirsten Gillibrand, who wrote the book,
Speaker 1: and I was so and I happened to be installing
Speaker 1: a show in Jerusalem at the time, and it was
Speaker 1: really lovely to get a phone call from her and
Speaker 1: she said, I'm doing this book, will you do it?
Speaker 1: And I think it took me two or three seconds
Speaker 1: to say yes, of course, uh and and uh. A
Speaker 1: lot of the time when I'm working and things are emotional,
Speaker 1: like when I did the book fire Boat about nine
Speaker 1: eleven for children, I'm crying when I'm painting. I mean
Speaker 1: not all the time, because that would be excessive, but
Speaker 1: there's a sense of phenomenal admiration and gratitude to these
Speaker 1: women who were so courageous. So it was a beautiful collaboration.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know about some of the women, as
Speaker 1: you said, some of them are much much lesser known,
Speaker 1: But so it was an education for me too. And
Speaker 1: it's one of those books that is evergreen. It's a
Speaker 1: wonderful book to have to keep to read. So thank
Speaker 1: you for doing what you did to make it even
Speaker 1: more wonderful. Thank you. You designed and illustrated a book
Speaker 1: with musician David Byrne called American Utopia. It's now a
Speaker 1: show on Broadway, and one description of the book called
Speaker 1: it an antidote to cynicism. It sounds like something we
Speaker 1: really need for these times. So tell us about American utopia. Utopia,
Speaker 1: just the word utopia, you know, it's it's it's always
Speaker 1: so hard to maintain a sense of hope, and and
Speaker 1: I feel so much despairs, you know, especially as we said,
Speaker 1: in these times. But David, who is an old friend
Speaker 1: of mine who have known for for many, many years,
Speaker 1: and we've worked together on a number of projects. By
Speaker 1: the way, the show is closing April third, so I
Speaker 1: urge anybody who's listening to go because it is one
Speaker 1: of the most joyous, spirit lifting things that you could
Speaker 1: possibly imagine. And his music is so great. But the
Speaker 1: and I did that the curtain the show curtain, which
Speaker 1: is how the book came about. But we we both
Speaker 1: share a lack of cynicism, and it doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: we're stupid or or pollyanna ish. So that means maybe
Speaker 1: that's not a bad thing to be, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but that we we have a sense of balance, that
Speaker 1: we know that there terrible things going on, and we
Speaker 1: know that there are splendid things going on in the world,
Speaker 1: and you have to look for the good. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: seems like more of a struggle and more of a challenge.
Speaker 1: But really you have to face the day and say
Speaker 1: there there are good things going on and we're going
Speaker 1: to look at That. Sounds like a of life to
Speaker 1: me if you can make it happen. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: always easy, and it doesn't work all day long for sure,
Speaker 1: but it's something that you need to do otherwise you
Speaker 1: you collapse in despair. Well, to follow up on the
Speaker 1: limited time we have, let me just ask you, Given
Speaker 1: what's going on in the world right now, and it's
Speaker 1: particularly horrific to see those images from Ukraine, what makes
Speaker 1: you optimistic? What gives you hope? You talked about optimism
Speaker 1: and hope is such a thread through everything you do.
Speaker 1: I think the things that give me hope are the
Speaker 1: very small things doing my which aren't small things, but
Speaker 1: they feel small. Doing your work, being with the people
Speaker 1: you love, walking through a park and looking at nature,
Speaker 1: and allowing yourself to engage in the things that are
Speaker 1: really meaningful and beautiful. That gives you courage, and that
Speaker 1: gives you strength and hope. And we're so engrossed in
Speaker 1: love curly burly of life that we somehow often miss
Speaker 1: what's really precious. Well, thank you for the spirit lifting
Speaker 1: work that you do in all of your creations and
Speaker 1: for making our lives so much richer. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Myra Kellman, Thank you very much. A pleasure to talk
Speaker 1: to you. That was an amazing perspective and creativity and life.
Speaker 1: Here are three things I took from that conversation. First,
Speaker 1: I love Myra's insight that not knowing what you're doing
Speaker 1: can lead to great accomplishments. She wants us to not
Speaker 1: take things too seriously, to look at the world with
Speaker 1: a kind of wonder, to just look and not think
Speaker 1: too much. Second, her approach to life is try anything
Speaker 1: and everything. You might fail, she says, but that's okay
Speaker 1: because failure is not fatal. Finally, let's draw inspiration from
Speaker 1: the small things, like being with the people you love,
Speaker 1: walking through a park, seeing nature. As Miras says, allowing
Speaker 1: yourself to engage in the things that are really meaningful
Speaker 1: and beautiful can give you courage, strength and hope. Tune
Speaker 1: in next time to hear about our next featured woman
Speaker 1: and discover why she's one of Seneca's on Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between
Speaker 1: the Seneca Women Podcast Network, and I Heart Radio with
Speaker 1: support from founding partner Pung. Have a great day.