After a year of big transitions — to a new platform, with a disbanded paywall, free content for everyone and new publishing schedule — here’s an update on Improvised Life and its fantastic community.
Read MorePractical Ways to Alleviate Toilet Paper Anxiety and Hoarding
We’ve read a lot theories for the toilet paper hoarding that has marked the Coronavirus pandemic. We have a few of our own + viable alternatives.
Read MoreThe Art of Collage and Assemblage: ‘Everyday, Non-Art materials…Provoke Imaginative, Even Visionary, Thoughts and Associations’.
In the images from The Art of Collage and Assemblage on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, it was the ordinariness of many of the materials used that we found both moving and inspiring…
Read MoreUsing Limitations As If They Were a Tool For Your Benefit
In this unique view of constraints, not having enough —money, help, whatever— can be a good thing…
Read MoreAnnals of Found Art: Anonymous Side-by-Side Toilets Rival Duchamp and Cattelan
In a coffee shop restroom, we stumbled on a mind-blowing installation that rivaled Marcel Duchamp’s ground-breaking Fountain.
Read MoreSally Mann on ‘Relishing the Limitations of the Ordinary’
Hold Still, A Memoir with Photographs, by legendary photographer Sally Mann reads like an epic novel shot through with photographs and remarkable insights about the creative process, and embracing the “limitations of the ordinary”.
Read MoreIdeas from Artists: Gift Boxes with Jazzy Interiors
Over the past 25 years or so, a number of artists have taken to embellishing the INSIDES of ordinary cardboard boxes to great effect. Barbarians that we are, we take their work as inspiration for novel holiday gift boxes…
Read MoreVisit Mondrian’s Paris Studio with Alexander Calder
When he was thirty-two, Alexander Calder visited the legendary Mondrian’s studio in Paris. The experience changed his life. Here’s what Calder saw.
Read MoreAlisa Barry’s Encouragement Cards + Care Packages
A couple of weeks ago, a big cardboard box arrived in the mail with an unusual sticker on it: BE BRAVE. What we found inside blew us away.
Read MoreOur Most Effective Strategy for Problem Solving
An essential question, and strategy, can help find unexpected solutions to problems.
Read MoreMatthew Sporzynski’s Expansive Money and Mindset
Paper artist Matthew Sporzynski has expanded our view for years with his mightily innovative thinking. His stretch money resonates particuarly strongly now.
Read MoreMatthew Sporzynski’s Improvised Tech Screwdriver + Lesson in Knolling
Brilliant paper artist and Couturier de Cardboard, Matthew Sporzynski sent a truly wonderful insta-hack he devised recently when trying to fix a vintage toy parakeet…A valuable lesson in improvisation and knolling.
Read MoreFood Gift: DIY Chocolate Shards or Slabs with Surprising Flavors
Shards of chocolate embedded with surprising flavors and crunchy elements make terrific gifts for much less cost than pricey “artisan-made’ chocolates. Here’s how to make them.
Read MoreLoom Chairs, Tables…Reminders of the Adjacent Possible
We’re smitten with this chair by Pascal Anson, a wire frame with one thousand pieces of ribbon, rope and string that were individually tied it, creating upholstery and wondrous visuals. (And metaphorically, it is a reminder of the possibilities in the everyday, which we need right now).
Read MoreThe Unpredictable Results of Artistic Explorations
This strangely beautiful photo is of a failed experiment, or perhaps better put, exploration. Paper artist extraordinaire Matthew Sporzynski sent it to us in an email chain revealing the mindset of a pure creative:
Read MoreMatthew Sporzynski’s Aluminum Tablet Stand
We were thrilled to find an email from paper artist Matthew Sporzynski, aka Couturier de Cardboard (whose work we’ve featured in the past), that said simply XO from W23! with photos of his a la minute improvisation: a tablet stand. Of course, we asked for details:
Read MoreDesign Your Own Motivational Phone WallPaper
Bryan Landers, creator of the wonderful 3 Good Things app, has a lot of interesting ideas up his sleeve. At Medium, we found an article he’d written about making his own motivational phone wallpaper. His thinking is compelling and his method simple and easy. We tried it ourselves.
Read MoreHalloween Costume Inspiration from Artists + Designers
We spent a number of Halloween’s outfitting ourselves in improvised costumes, usually at the last minute, and LOVED suddenly taking on a whole other persona for one magic night. If you haven’t gotten your Halloween act together yet, and want some inspiration, here’s a compendium of forage-able ideas from artists and designers…Salvador Dali offers loads of…
Read MoreIrregularly Shaped Mirrors to DIY or Buy
As soon as we saw Mc&Co’s irregularly shaped mirrors we thought WANT. We’ve been thinking for some time that our very angular Laboratory could use some organic forms to soften it, and have been mulling how we might do that with mirrors. Mc&Co’s mirrors look like portals into other rooms. Swell! Although we’ve written about irregularly…
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