Artist, designer, inventor and “thinkeruper”, Dominic Wilcox is one of the most inspired improvisers we know, constantly challenging himself to push limits as he asks himself “What would happen if”… We are especially smitten with the “multiple brush paint brush” he made after he bought 150 paint brushes cheap and wondered “IF I could join them…
Read More
At Brain Pickings today, we stumbled on this wonderful illustration from Oliver Jeffers’ charming kid’s book, Once Upon an Alphabet. It’s a sign we’d like to print out and hang on our wall, a quiet, potent reminder. ONWARD! is the word we find helps most in times of fear, anxiety or overwhelm — a new project or an exhausting one, an idea…
Read More
In response to our post about various permutations on the Guest Book, Laura Handler sent us images of her friend Dennis Decker’s Guest List on a wall of his Harlem guest room. With overtones of a Haring-esque comic book, we imagine it to be compulsively readable.
Read More
(Video link HERE.) We can’t stop thinking about “My Own Life”, the extraordinary Op-Ed Oliver Sacks wrote in last weeks New York Times upon learning that he has terminal cancer. We’ve read it several times and find his words resonating, as his “clear focus and perspective” has become, momentarily, part of our worldview. We’ve always been…
Read More
(Video link HERE.) In this curious performance piece, famed Muppet-of-few-words Cookie Monster tours New York City museums as he shares thoughts about food that seem like…zen koans, succinct paradoxical statements to be used as meditations…
Read More
For years we’ve wondered at the seeming impossibility of living in Philip Johnson’s Glass House — a house clad entirely in translucent plate-glass— without feeling totally exposed. We learned only recently that the house was is really just one of an array of buildings splayed across Johnson’s 49-acres of land in Connecticut which constituted Johnson and…
Read More
We know a lot of people who work to be mindful of how precious their life is and savor each moment. And work it is, a practice, because it’s so easy to get caught up in bad moods, what we think is wrong, the stresses of each day. We stumbled on an interesting happiness practice unexpectedly while…
Read More
I recently came a diary of sorts that I kept long ago: notations of dinner parties, what we ate, the wines we drank and the guests that were there. I’d bought it on a trip to Venice —a handmade book of days, no year — which I filled in with pencil, interleaving it with thank…
Read More
(Video link HERE.) This is one of those astonishingly sweet, quirky videos that is heartening in ways we can’t quite describe. As farmer Derek Klingenberg plays Lorde’s Royals rather badly on his trombone, curious cows come over the hill to hear him. At about 3 minutes they look at once uncertain and compelled to check out…
Read More
This gif, made from videographer Parker Paul‘s lovely film of seagull’s flight patterns and sky trails, is wonderful unto itself.
Read More
There are a lot of things we like about this interior but this crazy tall, fabulously orange lampshade takes the cake for completely shifting our view of lampshade possibilities. It makes us wonder why most lampshades are so ordinary. We are hard-pressed to find a ready-made shade like this BUT know that the reliable Just Shades…
Read More
While I was on my sudden, much-needed hiatus last week, I emailed Susan Dworski, a frequent contributor/now-dear-friend, about the heartening and supportive messages I’d received from readers. She sent the image, below, (titled appropriately “I’m Wired“), with this note: Maybe it’ll take a village to get you unplugged. She hit the nail on the head.
Read More
We are smitten with this radical optical-illusion color block. Even without the table and chairs, there is something thrillingly startling about painting a bright, bold geometry over everything on a wall. (When we search GEOMETRY on Improvised Life, we find it a recurring theme. Perhaps because it seems like a do-able way to shift a room using…
Read More
(Video link HERE.) We discovered performance artist Nick Cave recently and are smitten. As one YouTube commenter wrote: “imagine a world where people wore these to work … lol that would colour up our lives a little”. It’s not just the joy the his Sound Suits evoke; we’re inspired by how the first Sound Suit…
Read More
Artist Jenny Holzer‘s sign is a wondrously-expansive view of living Valentine’s Day…daily. We’d love to have this bench in our Laboratory…a fine reminder…
Read More
Creating a one-inch expression of love to be utilized by millions is no slam dunk as seen in this short conversation with designer Jessica Hische, who created a Forever stamp for the U.S. Postal Service. (Video link HERE.) I love the harmonious convergence of digital and analog as seen in her workspace with computer cum hand…
Read More
Of late, we’ve felt like this: trying to gain control of a wild horse — also known as our life. We’ve learned the hard way when we hit rough patches — of health, or crises of our own or our friends — our best bet is to STOP, and take time to catch up, heal, rest. So…
Read More
(Video link HERE.) Some fab, out-there LEAPS from performance artist Nick Cave. And just in case you’re inspired, here’s where you can get a Pogo Stick that will hold a person up to 160 pounds.
Read More
Lately, we’ve been seeing appealing LOW shelves in some of the interiors we’ve come across. The low-to-the-floor horizontals they create have the effect of making the ceiling look higher, especially useful in low-ceiling rooms. We especially like the these clever shelves spotted at Il Richiamo Del Bosco (The Call of the Woods), and eco friendly bed & breakfast in Sala Baganza,…
Read More
At But Does it Float, we were struck by this the title of a photography exhibition (not by the photographs). “How you see is what you get” is one of Improvised Life’s essential principles. NOT in the magical thinking way, that we will get everything we want if we just think a certain way. But in…
Read More