Improvised Life’s vast archive is liberally peppered with posts about guerilla actions: small-scale actions that deploy subversive messages in unexpected ways. A recent one in the middle of a busy New York City crosswalk gets our admiration for its daring, power and simplicity.
Read MoreAlice Brock is “Alice” of “Alice’s Restaurant,” Arlo Guthrie’s iconic anti-war song of the 60’s. We discovered that she forages stones on the beaches around Provincetown, draws on them and leaves them in unexpected places: a perfect guerilla practice for the end of summer.
Read MoreJust as I was scrambling to pack and send off gifts to far-flung friends, a very interesting box, and idea, arrived for me. Artist and dear friend Lisa Morphew’s yearly Christmas box came decorated with trees in red marker and…a poem. It had been printed out and taped on the OUTSIDE, the name of the poet,…
Read MoreIt’s curious how bright red stickers with the words why not? and Do. have been appearing around town, in the subway and on lamp posts. They’re our new Improvised Life stickers. We wonder who the guerilla(s) is/are that are tagging things and spreading the word?
Read MoreUnlike many folks using recycled materials, WILL Holman of Object Guerrilla has an eye for style, as evidenced by the inspired Zip Tie Lounge Chair, above, a flat-pack armchair made of plywood panels sewn together with zip ties. His new book Guerilla Furniture Design contains chapters on Guerilla History, Sustainability, Philosophy, The Guerilla Workshop and Design Fundamentals,…
Read More(Video link HERE.) We have a soft spot in our heart for slightly subversive guerilla actions that shifts people’s views in public spaces, or provide a bit of art or science to illuminate. Colored balls set loose on an escalator make for a wonderful, anonymous “static loop of kinetic energy, redefining location“. No other info given.…
Read MoreIn our hunt for material that resonates with ‘the improvised life’, we have decidedly subversive leanings. We love people who SEE the accepted order differently and put their mark on it, like this great, simple way designer Sebastrian Errazuriz transformed ordinary traffic lines into $$ signs, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. If…
Read MoreThis uplifting bit of graffiti brings out the guerilla in us. We don’t WE become anonymous graffiti artists and leave uplifting (and impermanent) messages around town? All it would take is carrying a piece of chalk (easy to carry)…
Read MoreThis winter, after a few weeks of feeling pretty down, my spirits were lifted in the oddest place—a diner bathroom in Burlington, Vermont. The walls were decorated with quotes, and on the side of the stall I happened to enter was this from Eleanor Roosevelt: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”…
Read MoreMarc Chagall‘s grand daughter Bella Meyer got a Doctorate in medieval art history from the Sorbonne and has held a variety of jobs – designing props for the theater, working as a puppeteer – before stumbling on her true calling: floral design. After friends asked her to design a blossom-laden chuppah for their wedding, Meyer,…
Read MoreHazel Beeler’s extraordinary letter to the New Yorker about pockets is rich with ideas and revelations including extraordinary improvisations she makes to her clothing — including undershirts…
Read MoreInstead of a mirror over the sink, this bathroom has a framed charcoal portrait. We wondered what it would be like to see an artwork and not dive right into our own image, as we all do first thing in the morning? So we tried it and found it to be a surprisingly potent guerrilla action…
Read MoreWe’re inspired in so many ways by graffiti artist Banksy’s brilliant tutorial done to the words of Bob Ross, TV painting instructor and host of the iconic Joy of Painting show from 1983 to 1994. Along with revelatory technique is a philosophy for navigating life…
Read MoreI came to loving poetry late in life when I realized what was happening when I read a great one. It was just as Emily Dickinson described… subversive words with the power of a drug…
Read MoreWhen we stumbled on thisimage by photographer Jill Burrow, we thought, ‘Ah yes. We’d love to sleep surrounded by flowers, especially now, after months of guarded and circumscribed living.’ Looking closely, we found permission to do it…
Read MoreWhen we were searching for hardware for a bag we are prototyping, we scoured New York City’s garment district and the internet for sources. We were surprised to find the most complete offerings at Etsy. The digital marketplace of crafters and sellers has expanded…
Read MoreIn Fly By Night, artist Duke Riley trained 2,000 pigeons to fly above the Brooklyn Navy Yard at dusk with tiny lights attached to their legs. The performance invites us to really SEE something we are so accustomed to that we’ve become blind to it:
Read MoreYou have only to click on our MINDSET menu to see that we value Signs and Reminders so much we’ve devoted a whole category of them. We love them because they help shift our view when we are stuck in an old mindset, pattern, dark view… We’re always on the lookout for signs around town —it’s amazing…
Read MoreSeattle artist Peregrine Church of Rainworks discovered a readily available spray that allowed him to stencil invisible signs and images on the sidewalk and walls, that would magically appear when it rained. It’s a beautiful effect that we’ve discovered we can do ourselves.
Read MoreWe recently wrote about Rotten Apple, an artist who has done a series of inspired ourdoor hacks. Our favorite bit of brilliance: he placed magnetic poetry kits — an array of magnetized words that people typically display on their fridge — in an unlikely public place: a steel subway sign. Random riders can make poetry while they wait. It’s…
Read More