What marks the dark time of Coronavirus for me are the many instances of acute beauty that I am offered daily that have the effect of infusing moments with light. Like this sublime 2 minutes: a simple gift for right now.
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Clouds 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…
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PDF to Print or Share: ‘I Am More Than______’
Here’s The Westport Arts Center and Pamela Hovland’s truly transformative ‘More Than Words’ postcard to print or share. See what happens when you or friends or family FILL IN THE BLANK.
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‘I Am More Than_______’ Illuminates the Richness of Our Identities
If someone asked you to finish the statement “I AM MORE THAN_______”, what would you write? What is the identity or cliche that you feel limits you? How are you MORE than that? That is the question that Pamela Hovland asks in a startling exhibition at the Westport Arts Center.
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Magazine Page Envelopes + the PERFECT Multipurpose Business Card
Pamela Hovland, who designed Improvised Life’s first site design, periodically sends us notes in improvised envelopes she makes out of pages torn from magazines and catalogs, whenever she comes across a compelling visual. We were charmed to get her Spring greeting in the form of two letters, both with images of people LEAPING on the outside,…
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Found Magazine Page Envelopes Redux
Our friend Pamela Hovland is an extraordinary designer who helped us create the original look for Improvised Life. Our first year in business, we wrote about her clever use of ripped-out pages from magazines as her envelopes. Recently she sent us this beauty with the message “this wrapper had your name all over it“. Indeed…
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A Necklace of Linked Bracelets (and Charms and Memories)
Pamela Hovland spotted this very cool necklace made from mismatched bracelets linked together using their existing fasteners, an idea that holds possibilities for transforming all kinds of jewelry
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A Heart-Shaped Boulder for Valentine’s
Graphic Designer Pamela Hovland sent us this image for Valentine’s, with this message: I always look at this big heart-shaped rock in the park where I run my dog. I finally decided to photograph it (pre-storm) in order to use it for an upcoming Valentine’s Day greeting. Thought you’d like it also…There’s a “broken heart” rock later on…
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Improvised Life: “A Zeitgeist-perfect Website” !!!
Not yet four months old, ‘the improvised life’ got its first public mention today, in Manhattan User’s Guide, a daily, often surprising, newsletter and website that is THE word on what’s happening in New York and beyond. Here’s what it said: “NYC journalist, chef, and author Sally Schneider has launched a new, zeitgeist-perfect website that…
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more on inspiration and other visual journals + scrapbooks
After reading ‘ted muehling and the inspiration journal’, designer Pamela Hovland wrote about the many kinds of visual journals she’s kept over the years: “one for my garden, one for my house, one for my summer cabin in Minnesota (all of which are ongoing projects). I keep a visual journal for art and design inspiration,…
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