2010 PHS Flower Show and ICA

March 2, 2010 my good friend, Celise, and I flew to Philadelphia to spend a few days in the City of Brotherly Love with Casey and Nick. Our raison d'etre was to attend the Horticultural Society's weeklong 2010 flower show, an annual event first held in 1829. This year's theme was "Passport to the World." The show was a combination floral fair and trade mart with several room-size professional, themed botanical exhibits, local member and group exhibits, individual 'best of species' competitions, and booths for vendors filled with just about anything an admirer of plant life might need or want. Poor camera work on my part doesn't do justice but a few shots will serve nicely as memory aids.

After the show we met Isaac in Chinatown for lunch then zipped on over to the U of Penn Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) where we thoroughly enjoyed Maira Kalman's show Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World). Proudly I report that Casey hung the show and did an exquisite job. It didn't look like it was easy as the pieces grouped on every wall were abutted frame edge to frame edge and centered along a constant horizontal midline. Congratulations Casey for a show well hung.

The piece shown here is Maira Kalman's "Self-Portrait With Pete" (2004-5). Ms. Kalman has been making art for more than 30 years. I first became acquainted with her from reading the NY Times for which she is currently creating a monthly visual blog about American democracy. I guess what I most enjoy about her blog, The Pursuit of Happiness, is the thoughtful, self-aware and accessible way she communicates her impressions.

Viewing the Various Illuminations show I enjoyed again and again her saucy sense of humor. She really made me laugh--a happy thing as there seems so much less to laugh at as self and perspective age. One of my favorite pieces was a souvenir-style sheet of dead presidents' heads which she had irreverently adorned with big hair, pigtails, and other cheeky doodles. Simple but effective. She also makes time to collaborate with her son and others on community projects that expand, embellish and lift lives.


Maira was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and moved to New York City with her family at the age of four. She has no formal art training but enjoys what looks to be a satisfying professional life blogging for the NY Times, illustrating for New Yorker magazine, she has written and illustrated at least a dozen children's books and illustrated an edition of the classic, Elements of Style. She teaches graduate classes in design at the School of Visual Arts. Maira Kalman shows at the Julie Saul Gallery in NYC.