Columbian artist Oscar Murillo’s view of his singular seat on a airplane flight as a sacrad studio space will change your view of air travel.
Read MoreA Homemade Foam Core Screen to Block the Sun or Define a Space
In my top floor space, the scorching temperatures have been pushing me to find non-electric ways of cooling the place down to mitigate air conditioner use. I turned to the material that seemed most likely to provide insulation: foam core leftover from the many life-size prototypes I’ve built …
Read MoreLessons in Stillness and Quiet, with Mitch Epstein’s Astonishing Trees
At first, we only visited the New York Times “Lessons in Stillness from One of the Quiestest Places on Earth” because we wanted to see Mitch Epstein’s remarkable photographs of trees. But then, the story called us…
Read MoreNew York Magazine’s Low Lift Home Improvements for Under $100 INCLUDING Improvised Life’s Big Fat Idea
How swell to see Improvised Life mentioned in New York Magazine’s ’31 Low Lift Home Improvements for Under $100′ for our decoding of Donald Judd furniture. We got a lot of ideas for jazzing up our space….
Read MoreHenry Miller and Others on the “Finest Medicine a Person Can Give Himself”
When we came across this quote from novelist Henry Miller, we thought, yes that IS some of the most powerful medicine we know.
Read MoreTiny Blossoms Knocked Off a Flower Make Unexpected Arrangements
Blossoms that might in one way seem broken or damaged can transform into something of startling beauty…
Read MoreReading W.S. Merwin’s ‘Rain Light’ in Dappled Sunlight, We Were Amazed to Learn What ‘Dappled’ Is
When we stumbled on this lovely way to read Rain Light by W.S. Merwin, it took our breath away for a moment as we rode on the New York City subway…Then we read Edward Tufte’s explanation of what “dappled” is…
Read MoreMonks Pond, Thomas Merton’s Visionary Underground Magazine Meant “To Go Out of Business”
In the sixties, Trappist monk and mystic Thomas Merton published a magazine with a radical and artful mission. Here are some excerpts…
Read MoreRefreshing Antidotes to the Heat Wave
All over town we’re seeing signs of people felled by the stunning heat wave, sleeping on benches under shady trees, lounging lethargically on the grass in parks. We’ve compiled some unexpectedly refreshing ways to cope…
Read MoreGold High Heels and Other Uniquely Personal Ways to Focus Your Mind (Mira Keras)
Former Improvised Life assistant editor-come-star-tattoo-artist Mira Keras wrote this spot-on description of a writer procrastinating. She discovered something essential in the process that unleashed her productivity.
Read MoreYoko Ono’s Instruction for Mending (Cup, Self, Family, Earth…)
Yoko Ono’s 1966 lovely “Mend Piece” is a participatory installation that, like many Ono works, comes with instructions designed to resonate personally, meaningfully, expansively…
Read MoreCall of the Forest “a Way of Thinking About Trees and the Planet You Have Never Thought Before”
In “Call of the Forest, the Forgotten Wisdom of Trees”, botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger guides us into “the essentials of what a tree is all about”, something she says most people have missed, and that will change our view of the planet we inhabit.
Read MoreOliver Sack’s On Meeting an Orangutan at the Toronto Zoo
One of the most remarkable stories in the late Oliver Sacks’ posthumously published book is about Sacks’ unexpected meeting with an orangutan while visiting the zoo. It describes Sacks “”a brilliant singularity”: his ability for showing us the big fat gifts to be found in the everyday. Perfection in 274 words.
Read MoreYves Klein’s Interior Inspirations, From Ultimate Blue to His Unusual Do-able Table
A single rare image of Yves Klein’s Paris apartment/studio got us hunting for his plexiglass coffee table filled with astonishing blue pigment he commissioned. We found A LOT of inspiration.
Read MoreAlex Soth and Richard Long on What Can Be Made From the Process of Moving Through the World
At his instagram, photographer Alex Soth posted a beautiful little video of a rock rolling down a path, an homage to artist Richard Long’s work, who mightily inspired an interesting view…
Read MoreW.S. Merwin’s Lines of Gratitude
This morning we opened our Collected Poems of W.S. Merwin to the poet counting blessings and expressing gratitude. Which we find ourselves doing as we read it.
Read MoreA Fireworks Display from J.R.R. Tolkien
Thinking about the Fourth of July, we came across this magical description of fireworks from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien…
Read MoreThe Secret Language of Trees via Animated Drawings And Richard Power’s Wondrous Novel
Through charming animated drawings, forestry experts Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard explain how trees communicate with one another. Novelist Richard Powers tells it another way in The Overstory.
Read MoreEditing Those Ubiquitous Lists of Reminders Yields Potent Scraps of Wisdom
Over the years, we’ve come to look more closely at the lists of reminders about how to live that we find in our internet wanderings, to decide just what is truly useful. Here’s how we curated this one.
Read MoreGünther Uecker: creating an instrument with which we can eat art
Artist Günther Uecker, whose work we did not know, gave us a new view of art, that we somehow have felt all these years, but couldn’t name…
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