The Wall Street Journal has a series called “My Week” and we can think of no better to way to start off our week than a week in the life of artist Maira Kalman.
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A Family Home Full of Heart and Good Ideas
“Something boldly improvisational and cheery going on in this house in Australia” wrote Susan Dworski in an email as she described the home Ruth Bruten, writer of Gourmet Girlfriend blog, shares with her husband and five boys. It is delightfully REAL and colorful, and packed with ideas. Here are Susan’s favorites, and ours:
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Father/Daughter Beatbox Competition Makes for Inspired Rhythms
(Video link here.) This loving competition between St. Louis-based beatboxer Nicole Paris and her dad, who taught her the basics — between mentor and apprentice —is filled with wonder and beauty,
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I Believe I Can…..(Gif-Inspiration)
One of the best gifs we’ve seen of late is I Believe I can… We know about flapping our arms hard to barely keep from falling in the water after we’ve stepped OFF the diving board BELIEVING WE CAN. Perhaps if we try a little harder, and shift our attitude slightly …
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Community Starts with One, Saying YES
These three surprising examples of communities reminds us that community starts with one person reaching out, taking action…and then another, and another….
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The Lunar Magic of Solar Lanterns + Solar Cell Stars
On the heels of our post about Staging a Summer Party with Modest Means, frequent contributor Susan Dworski sent this email about Shoji Solar Lanterns, an essential, inexpensive, mood-enhancing element that are, in her words “Pretty damned lunar at night”: Ironically, I just replaced my tattered red Shoji solars yesterday with the familiar bluebird ones. They are…
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Hair as Personal, Cultural, Historical Artform
Nigerian photographer J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere spent more than thirty years traveling across Nigeria documenting hundreds of braided “Tall House” styles that appeared after Lagos gained independence from Britain in 1960. He took close to 1,000 portraits of different braids, twists, plaits and buns, each carrying a distinct meaning. For us, they are examples of personal expression taken to wondrous heights with the most elemental of materials.
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How a Computer Crash Yielded a Vacation with Rumi
My recent week-long hiatus sans computer proved to be tremendously healing, slowing things down in the studio…while giving me permission to…become deliciously – literally – powerless..
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The Wonder of Room-Size Shadow Boxes
Our friend Susan Dworski recently email us a link to artist Anila Quayyum Agha‘s room-size shadow box with this note: Sally – this is pretty fabulous. So simple a concept, so detailed the craft, so profoundly spiritual the effect. And she is right. ‘Intersections’ is large-scale shadow box composed of Moorish patterns suspended in the middle of…
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Must Read: Anne Lamott’s “Everything I know”
When she turned 61, Anne Lamott decided to “take the opportunity to write down every single thing I know, as of today.” It is a seriously good distillation from decades of living.
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Vicarious Home Building: Blu Home’s Breezehouse
Want to see a very cool house appear before your very eyes? Watch as the Blu Home‘s team delivers, sets, and unfolds a prefab Breezehouse in one day, making it watertight before the impending rain. (Video link here.)
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Celebrating Spring with Dark Ambiguity of Maximón
Easter, Passover and the innumerable rites of spring used to make me anxious and defensive. Tales of death, rebirth, joy and sorrow, suffering and salvation, history recited, vows reaffirmed, sacred foods eaten: traditions created to allow tribes to regroup, bond, and go forth again into an uncertain world. Part of me bridled; I wanted to…
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DIY Idea-Capturing Desks
Kirsten Camara’s Analog Memory Desk has a holder embedded in its legs for scrolling huge rulls of butcher paper over the desk’s surface to make “a sort of tablecloth of memory”. It can record months, possibly years of ideas, drawings, doodles, mind maps, phone numbers, calculations etc. She has made detailed blueprints so you can build your own. Or you try these other methods of analog idea-capturing.
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Morning Wakeup: Dolphins Surf the Waves
(Video link HERE.) A visual poem for the day; no words needed. —Susan Dworski
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Do You Need Permission to Stop?
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.
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Valentines: Digital, Analog and Otherwise
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…
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Snowboarding in LED’s
(Video link HERE.) Insanely beautiful and daring. The absence of any sound except the simple piano accompaniment punches up the stark black and white imagery as Sutton carves across snowbanks and threads through barren trees trailing a roostertail of powered crystals. May your Monday be this luminous. —Susan Dworski via Nowness
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Insta-Meditation + Anxiety Antidote: The Endless Ocean
(Video link HERE.) On the East Coast, our attention is on the monster blizzard heading our way and the constant notices of road and transit closings and a general feeling of… DANGER. On the West Coast, Susan Dworski in Venice, California reported “80 degrees with a weird red sky and bed sheets pulled off to wash are…
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The Magical Flying Lighting We’d REALLY Love to Have
(Video link HERE.) Just as we were writing out post decrying the ubiquitous pendant lamp, Susan Dworski sent us this charmer of a short film. Sparked, a collaboration between Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich and Verity Studios creates an unexpected dance between a human and 10 quadcopters (drones). It’s a bit slow until 1:41 when the magical…
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A Winter Solstice Reflection on Loss and Joy
Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day —and longest night — of the year, when the sun pauses on its southward trajectory, then starts its cimb north, and the cycle begins once again. Some of us wait to begin rejuvenating our lives until New Year’s Eve when the glittering ball drops in Times Square. But…
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