I visited Maira Kalman's "The Elements of Style" exhibit at the Frist a few summers ago on my Birthday. After passing through the busy animation exhibit and moving right into a brightly lit room full of still illustrations, I appreciated the life inside each of Kalman's colorful paintings even more.
*Picture via Mairakalman.com
Each painting in the exhibit is inspired by lines from the authoritative American English writing style guide The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, which was republished in 2005. Kalman illustrates paintings to lines like, "well, Susan, this is a fine mess you are in" and "every window, picture, and mirror was smashed." What a brilliant idea, to bring some color (literally) to a pile of dry sentences from an English writing style book, meant only to be examples of how to speak and write in proper English!
*Picture via New York Times
Maira Kalman, who says she "daydreamed" her way into NYU in this TED Talk from 2007, is a writer of children's books, a frequent contributor to the New York Magazine, and, of course, a famous artist. Her artistic style is whimsical, witty, and simplistic. I love that she does not color inside the lines and that she incorporates images from her own life into her work.
Another fearless female artist I will add to my list of inspiring people.