We’ve just learned that May is National Masturbation Month. To celebrate, we thought we’d post a few of our favorite finds on the theme, which include everyday “niche” pleasures, phallic skywriting and a charming animated film.
Read MoreWatch Bob Dylan Write “If You See Her, Say Hello”, as You Listen
With the release of Vol. 14 of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg series, Columbia Records released a video of the first take Dylan recorded of his song “If You See Her, Say Hello” with a unique twist, for unexpected intimacy and insight.
Read MoreNudes Floating in Space: Jimmy Simpson’s Virtual Mobiles (after Alexander Calder)
Inspired by Alexander Calder, illustrator/animator Jimmy Simpson has created an ongoing series of digital mobiles. His loose line drawings turn dimensional and animated using 3D software. They are even more charming as gifs floating in space.
Read MoreHow Do Your Good Ideas Make an Entrance? Knowing Can Help Bring Them to Life
When we stumbled on this image by the great Christoph Niemann at #abstractsunday, we thought: OMG, look at that fabulous doorway. What a vision! How can we get ourselves to imagine more expansively? And that got us thinking about the creative vision and where ideas come from.
Read MoreHere’s How to See Everything Ever Posted on Improvised Life Over 10 Years
If you’re in need of illumination NOW, here’s how to scroll through everything ever posted on Improvised Life.
Read MoreTaking a Break to Do Nothing Is Necessary for Doing Something
When ideas and energy feel mired and writing becomes daunting and bogged down, I take the kind of time Jennifer Odell wrote about so incisively in her amazing piece,’how to do nothing’.
Read MoreDept of Astonishment: Listen to The Sound of a ‘Waterfall’ Made By Millions of Butterflies
For the first 3 minutes of this video of a visit to a butterfly reserve in Mexico, naturalist Phill Torres treks and talks while he makes his way to the winter encampment of millions of overwintering monarch butterflies. Then at 3:39, a miracle happens:
Read MoreThe Secret to Artist Constantino Nivola’s Sublime Painted Floors
We stumbled on this inspiring idea for painted floors while leafing through Artists’ Handmade Houses, which is chock full of ideas. Sculptor- designer Costantino Nivola painted the kitchen in his Long Island home a sublime, deeply saturated yellow available in a singular paint.
Read MoreTacita Dean’s Trees: Ideas Fueled by Openness to Chance, Accident, Poetic Associations
This astonishing tree is one of a group of photographs of ancient trees in the South East of England made by artist Tacita Dean. It is the product of Dean’s unique approach, which is as wonderful as the work itself.
Read MoreRunning With Wild Horses Redux (Commentary by Virginia Wolfe)
This video of horses galloping in the Camargue gains even great meaning with these words from Virginia Wolfe.
Read MoreBucatini with Ramps, Olive Oil and Parmigiano Reggiano to Celebrate the Wildest Food of Spring
Being a truly wild food that seems to defy cultivation of any scale, ramps are truly delicious and root me in the season. I especially love them braised in olive oil with bucatini or spaghetti and Parmigiano Reggiano, THE pasta dish for spring.
Read MoreVivianne Westwood’s Activist Fashion for Personal Power and Global Change
Martin Parr’s wonderful portrait of the always-inspiring wise-elder activist fashion designer, Vivianne Westwood got us wondering what she was up to. Her ongoing mission is to have people “buy less; dress up”. How you might ask? She tells you here.
Read MoreAnnals of Anonymous Art: Heart Writ in Cherry Blossoms (with Haiku)
Over the days that the bright pink cherry blossoms fell like snow around Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, two hearts formed out negative space appeared. We found the perfect Basho haiku to accompaniment them:
Read MoreWant to Be a Digital Story Teller or Launch an App or Product? Join Me at Omega Institute’s Digital Age Conference
This coming June, I will be leading a workshop at Omega Institute’s Build Your Audience in the Digital Age Conference which will cover the how-to’s of creating digital products, from blogs to apps to online courses to newsletters, at Omega’s extraordinary, always transformative campus.
Read MoreDominique Nabokov’s As-is, Not-Styled, REAL Paris Living Rooms Are a Joy
Unlike most interior photographers, Dominique Nabokov photographed consciously NOT-styled or lit spaces, each unique because they reflect the very unique lives of the people who created them, whose lives dictated their design.
Read MoreJean Cocteau’s Catalyzing 2-line Psychotherapy Lesson
An insightful quote from legendary poet, film-maker, artist, Jean Cocteau has had a number of people we know thinking hard about it and how much it resonates: a tiny therapeutic bomb that catalyzes change.
Read MoreClouds in Art and Daily Life, ‘Their Contemplation Benefits the Soul’
At designer Pamela Hovland’s instagram, we were stunned by this image of “cloud studies” by J.C. Dahl, Norway’s greatest landscape painter. He reminded us of others who view clouds as Nature’s display of poetry…
Read MoreBeth Moon’s Photographs of Ancient Trees Under Night Skies are Magic
Inspired by studies that view trees as receivers of stellar energies, photographer Beth Moon traveled to the world’s “last dark places” to photograph ancient trees at night, in color.
Read MoreThe Very Best Letter of Love or Apology when Words Won’t Do It (H.C. Westermann)
Recently we stumbled on this astonishingly wonderful letter from artist H.C. Westermann to his wife Joanna Beall Westermann in 1971 that says so much with hardly a word.
Read MoreWe Edited Our Instagram to Be a Tool of Illumination and Found Wild Poetry
Realizing we disliked Instagram for the “junkfood” feeling it gave us, we embarked upon a rigorous edit. Our criteria: whatever we follow must illuminate.
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