freelance writer
Maggie Kinser Hohle  
  (Maggie Kinser Saiki)
 
Welcome
 
 
Welcome to my site. For 20 years I've been writing magazine and newspaper articles and books about design, architecture, and Japan. On maggietext.com, you'll find links to some of my favorite work, as well as comments on recent ideas. Feel free to contact me with your thoughts.
 
What's New (Nov 08)
 
 

This fall I've been drawn to stories of the Great Depression, hardship in the West, and books and articles about cultures in which consuming is not the primary means of interacting with our fellow Earthlings.

Design as a method of solving real problems seems more important now than ever, and I'm reminded of my father's mantra: Design is a trade, not a fine art. Whether graphic design ever completely escapes its entwined nature with fine art is probably up to the institutions of higher learning, but finding real trades for our people of all ages should be a goal of educators and parents and citizens, I think.

Having lost my mom in April, I feel lost at sea sometimes. She was a consummate designer in three dimensions, using materials with an intrinsic understanding of their natures. In her barn in Pennsylvania, I rediscovered the reed bed (head and foot) she'd done for Sphere Magazine in the 70s. This was made out of a heavy reed, but during that same period our kitchen often smelled like boiling willow, because she was experimenting with all kinds of weaving. She used willow in her book, Outdoor Art For Kids, for which my brother (Tom Kinser 1961-1980) and I were the sometimes unwilling creators and models.

This fall, rowing on the Petaluma River, I smell the willow again, the one that weeps deeply from our boatyard by the dock. Strange, how things that once troubled me (as in, how long are we going to be inhaling willow steam?) now comfort.

So as fall turns to winter in Northern California, I think of how things change, and how sometimes our perceptions can change completely. For example, when I came back from Japan in 2000, I was shocked by the McMansions dotting the fields, all facing in different directions, as if they'd wandered out onto that farmland themselves, got lost, and just sat down. What on earth do we need all that space for, I wondered. Now, I am happy to be reading, in almost every publication or blog I come across, that McMansions are wasteful, that consumerism as we knew it (must've happened in the 80s, when I was preoccupied with philosophy at St. John's College, and then moved to Japan) is over.

Thank goodness we are coming to our senses. Too bad it didn't happen sooner.

Reviews of
12 Japanese Masters
 

Throughout the summer and into the winter of 2004, my book 12 Japanese Masters has and will be reviewed by several magazines and online sources. The reviews out so far are positive, and a welcome chin-up for this writer.

Review: reservocation.com

Review: Leonardo Reviews

Review: Christopher Liechty

Review: Archinect

Review: EnFuse Magazine

Review: Art Magazine

Review: Club Sandwich

More to come...

   
Reviews of
Matchibako

Review: John Einarson

Review: Robert L Peters

Review: Dwell Magazine

Review: Leonardo Reviews