books + zines Archives - Improvised Life

New Yorker’s Coronavirus Cartoons are Funny, Wise and Curiously Comforting

These New Yorker cartoons describe the peculiar brand of anxiety that has become our weird shared experience. They give a much-needed sense of connectedness, AND levity…

Uplift and Surprise Sparked by a Jane Hirshfield Poem

We’re loving Jane Hirschfeld’s wonderful poem I Wanted to Be Surprised. It is the lens through which we’ve been looking to discover uplifting…surprises…

“I am Art”, A Rhapsodic Proclamation about Art and Making

In a 2012 talk at AIGA, Zach Lieberman, cofounder of the School for Poetic Computation, read the short, powerful ‘I Am Art’ out loud. It is one of the most astonishing and rhapsodic proclamations of art-making we’ve seen and totally nails the exhilaration art brings.

Robert Macfarlane on Trees and Long Love

Over our transom came this moving piece from Underland: a Deep Time Journey by British naturalist Robert Macfarlane. We’ve written before about his remarkable ability to connect us to nature, landscape, heart…

Donald Judd Spaces: A Deep Dive Into Judd’s Inspired Designs for Living

We are thrilled by the publication of Donald Judd Spaces, a rare visual survey of the legendary artist’s living and working spaces. It contains a trove of new and archival photographs alongside five essays by the artist which afford a close look and greater understanding of his integrative thinking and aesthetic, and very employable ideas.

Useful Wisdom from Books about Nothing

Without realizing it, I’ve collected a few books about “doing nothing”, one for kids and a couple for adults. All have unexpected wisdom to offer.

Gifts that ‘Encourage Wonder and Reflection’

The recent post about Mister Rogers got me thinking about how to give gifts that “encourage wonder and reflection? Here are some gift books that do just that.

Patti Smith: “The Secret to Improvisation I Have Accessed My Whole Life”

As we work to move Improvised Life to a new form, we came across this passage from Just Kids, Patti Smith’s memoir of finding her artistic voice: the secret of improvisation she learned from Sam Shepard.

Patti Smith: How to Reread a Favorite Book Three-Dimensionally

We were casting about for a new book to read when we came across Patti Smith’s technique for rereading personal favorites “three-dimensionally, cubistically, from several angles.

Revelations from Living with A Book Left Open

Although I’ve often left art books open around my space so I could live with an image, it only recently occurred to me to do that with a volume of tiny, powerful poems.

Stephen Nachmanovitch’s ‘The Art of IS’ Decodes Improvising As a Way of Life

YoYo Ma described The Art of IS as “a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present.” We find it full of surprising ideas that are also incredibly helpful.

New York Magazine’s Low Lift Home Improvements for Under $100 INCLUDING Improvised Life’s Big Fat Idea

How swell to see Improvised Life mentioned in New York Magazine’s ’31 Low Lift Home Improvements for Under $100′ for our decoding of Donald Judd furniture. We got a lot of ideas for jazzing up our space….

Monks Pond, Thomas Merton’s Visionary Underground Magazine Meant “To Go Out of Business”

In the sixties, Trappist monk and mystic Thomas Merton published a magazine with a radical and artful mission. Here are some excerpts…

Oliver Sack’s On Meeting an Orangutan at the Toronto Zoo

One of the most remarkable stories in the late Oliver Sacks’ posthumously published book is about Sacks’ unexpected meeting with an orangutan while visiting the zoo. It describes Sacks “”a brilliant singularity”: his ability for showing us the big fat gifts to be found in the everyday. Perfection in 274 words.