2013 - Page 5 of 27 - Improvised Life

fern berman: “turn loss into something else”

Finding her capacity to walk diminishing due to MS, artist Fern Berman’s practice became to “turn loss into something else…and generating creativity”. With each photograph she wants to make, she must ask: How can I make that happen?

Fab New Yorker Cartoon Commentary on Minimalist Interiors

As we look at ultra-minimalist home design publications, we totally get with New Yorker cartoonist Rick Stevens really apt commentary. And we know from experience, that less is not necessarily more. In a renovation, minimalist often costs way more than traditional styles. via Susan Dworski

diy or find: charming multi-use wood cutting boards

My favorite cutting boards are odd-size rather sculptural wooden boards that I’ve collected, or been given, over the years. Some are surprisingly small — 10-x-6 inches. I might use 2 or 3 at a time. There is just something about their “feel” that makes them fun to use, and they are wonderful to look at.…

mindfulness moment: reading signs of change

On the cusp of Halloween, before the covens of tiny witches and goblins descended at dusk, I vowed to take the day to observe any signs and portents that, in the words of poet Dylan Thomas, ‘the weather had turned around‘ and Fall had finally arrived, despite what the thermometer read. Perched on the front door, peering through…

making art in an airplane lavatory + other long-haul improvs

Long-haul flights can seem like a singularly uncreative time for many people. Artist Nina Katchadourian discovered that an airplane’s lavatory provided the art materials necessary to make Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style. It is part of her larger piece Seat Assignment, in which she improvises with a camera phone and materials on hand in…

hanging wine bucket keeps chilled wine within reach

We found this bit of unexpected brilliance on Rough Linen‘s slideshow of reader’s applications of its lovely linen products. A rustic zinc bucket hung above the table serves as an easy to reach wine cooler: practical, charming, fun. It is the very inspired improvisation of Austalian stylist Kara Rosenlund. We also love the bunch of…

yoko ono’s ‘bad dancer’: no regrets!

(Video link here.) The amazing Yoko Ono’s new video embraces being a BAD DANCER, and doing it anyway, WITH NO REGRETS. As she says: When your heart is dancing, your mind is bouncing! Break a leg Cut the thread I’m a bad dancer Full speed ahead! As usual, she undermines accepted wisdom, judgments and inhibition, and…

el cosmico’s teepees, tents and trailors (for rent or inspiration)

El Cosmico, a hippy-ish retreat/hotel with wonderful amenities and a very cool philosophy, offers a variety of simple, unique accommodations — teepees, tents and trailors — that promote sitting on porches, naps and other moments of non-action
Even El Cosmico’s website is both freshing and inspiring. We took a mini virtual vacation.

how to make low ceilings look higher (optical illusion)

We were thrilled when Remodelista contacted us about using images we’d posted some time ago of an essential design trick we’d used throughout the Laboratory’s renovation: replacing the squat 6’6″ doors with tall, eight-footers. Their strong vertical lines make our lowish 8’2″ ceilings look higher. Check out our images on Remodelista. In the meantime, here are…

NYC Marathon: 8 Reasons Why We Run

We felt a little nervous about walking the short block to see New York City marathoners round Marcus Garvey Park, as they entered the last leg to the finish line. The Boston Marathon bombing was still fresh in our minds; we wondered at the possible danger we might be putting ourselves in if we joined…

Friday Link-o-later: Fun, Illumination + Daring

(Video link here.) We were knocked out by this short wondrous film by Grace Jackson, about Jack English, a 93-year-old who lives in an isolated cabin deep in the Ventana Wilderness, California. After his wife died, he moved to the land he’d hunted on and “fell in love with” as a boy. He built a small cabin using…

Happy Halloween from Improvised Life!

We love this beauty of a costume: the Horseman from 1960 Jean Cocteau film, ‘Testament of Orpheus’. And with it we wish you H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N!

2 shacks built entirely of repurposed, reclaimed materials

We usually turn to Cabin Porn to feed our escapist fantasies. Two recent images of cabins were built so obsessively from salvaged materials, they made us realize that there is no limit to the theme or possibilities of repurpose and reclaim. At top someone’s hideaway in California; at bottom, a fishing shack in Central Baja, Mexico.…

mindfulness practice 101: hang a reminder you’ll see first thing

Not being the best of meditators, we rely on Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh to gently guide us in mindfulness practice, which, he points out, you can do anywhere, anytime: washing the dishes, walking, cleaning the house, listening to a friend. In The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, he outlines…

bauhaus costumes for halloween inspiration

Need some inspiration for a Halloween costume? Check out this inspiring slideshow of costumes devised for Oskar Schlemmer‘s Bauhaus fetes in the 1920’s. Quelle imagination! We especially love the clever illusion, below. Could there have been florescent paint in those days?

repair or chic-up your wood floors with tiles

What do you do when you’ve got a parquet or hardwood floor with patches that are broken or in generally terrible repair? We found a surprising solution via artist Mathias Kiss’ installation Banquise: replace wood rectangles or slats with tile. You don’t have to just stick with rectangles. Paola Navone made a fabulous patch using…

How to Create Something Bigger Than Yourself

We love this comic by Grant Snider, “Creator of Incidental Comics by night and Mover of teeth by day,” explaining the Art of the Self-Portrait. Whether or not we think of ourselves as visual artists, it’s likely we can all relate to the daily process of evaluating ourselves in the mirror and figuring out how to…

100 Ways to Serve Pizza

We love Lauren Manning’s 100 Ways to Serve Pizza sketched on paper plates (a novel sketchpad): her imaginings and improvisations got our brain working. Wouldn’t it be swell to have pizza paint, or a slice of hot pizza pop up out of a tissue-dispenser-like device…or decorate your tree with festive slices…?

how to stretch tight shoes: 5 fails yield one great solution

Having invested in a pair of expensive Jimmy Choo shoes I thought would take me everywhere, I was dismayed to discover, after wearing them out a few times, that they were painfully tight. I went on a quest to stretch them and discovered that much of the accepted wisdom about how to stretch tight shoes DID NOT work. Here’s the one that did.

shaolin monk: through practice you can skip on a wall!

We are knocked out by photographer Tomasz Gudzowaty‘s beautiful black-and-white-essay of the practices of Shaolin monks, found at IndigoJaws. We especially love this one of a monk skipping on a wall — a variation on our favorite subject of leaping and flying — made possible by rigorous and repeated practice. Lesson there… Thanks Vanessa!

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