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.
Read MoreListening to the Spirit of the Tools We Use (Tim McCreight)
In Tim McCreight’s The Complete Metalsmith, I was surprised to find poetic wisdom in his section about hand tools that apply to many kinds of tools we use in creative endeavors, sometimes even smart phones.
Read MoreMister Rogers: What is Essential is Invisible to the Eye
We are continually amazed by the late Fred Rogers ability to illuminate aspects of life using just a few words, in his calm, spacious way. Here are two transformative riffs to take into the week.
Read MoreFloating Blossoms in a Tiny Indoor Pond (Su Tung Po)
Photographer Maria Robledo inspired us to copy the lovely pond she improvised for fallen blossoms culled from her garden. A perfect accompaniment to this Spring poem by Su Tung Po.
Read MoreBenediction for Living a Creative Life, from John O’ Donohue
A reader wrote that she has poet John O’ Donohue’s benediction tacked on her fridge to remind her to “let my work feed and refresh me”. Which is what it does for us, mightily.
Read MoreCool Private Spaces Where On Kawara’s Date Paintings Reside
We roamed the internet to collected images from photographer Candida Hofer’s ‘On Kawara, Date Paintings in Private Collections’. Often they are displayed in the place where the collector spends much of his or her time, or where they give the most inspiration and meaning. Unstyled and rather plain, they let On Kawara’s work resonate.
Read MoreBring a Little Piece of Nature Into the Home, Heart, Day (Yoko Ono, Max Lamb)
It usually takes just a shift of orientation, or your usual route to work or the store, to work some living trees into your day and heart. Here’s some inspiration from Yoko Ono and Max Lamb…
Read MoreThis Serene Water Opera Echoes Music Made by Whales
The serene made-underwater music in Breathe, an experimental “water opera”, echoes ancient songs made by whales.
Read MoreSolt’s Concrete Poem About Spring Celebrates Its Joyful Essence
In celebration of spring and all its possibilities and openings (and Easter and Passover), this remarkable poem-within-poem in the shape of forsythia by concrete poet Marry Ellen Solt…
Read MoreMatisse’s 13 Sketches, 13 Prayers, Before Painting ‘The Dream’
Henri Matisse likened his state of mind when making art “close to that of prayer. So we’re viewing each one of these 13 ravishing sketches in preparation for painting The Dream as a sort of prayer…
Read MoreWhite Sneakers are Your Blank Canvas for Graffiti and Dalmation Spots (DIY)
Like many white things, plain white sneakers are a blank canvas just waiting to be embellished with permanent fabric markers or paint. Here are two favorite iterations for summer.
Read MoreSeinfeld on Why Things Make You Happy or Not (and Why He Loves Advertising)
We are knocked out by Jerry Seinfeld’s radically truth-telling, wise, funny —Is he kidding or what?— send up of advertising and his clarifying principle of things and happiness.
Read MoreChandelier from 1980’s Berlin and Alexander Calder “On the Cutting Edge of Architectural Experimentation”
We found this divine, completely original and inspired chandelier buried in MondoBlogo’s riff on 1980’s interiors. It’s right up there with this ceiling light Alexander Calder fashioned for his friend Miro.
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