creative process

A Question to Maintain Stillness, Attention and Flow

I rely on my tightly edited instagram feed to bring ideas and wonders right to me when I need them. Then a powerful quote from Saul Bellow sparked an essential question.

Heather Chontos’ Art + Atelier in Rural France: Improvisation in a Time of Confinement

Admiring photos of artist Heather Chontos’ atelier in France, we stumbled on the backstory of resourcefulness and improvisation in response to fierce, Covid-fueled constraint.

Banksy: How to ‘Create Escape’

We’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…

Anni Albers’ on Material as Metaphor + Martin Margiela’s Tape Belt

We were stunned by the simple brilliance of clothing designer Martin Margiela’s packing tape belt. He recognized the most ordinary of materials as the perfect width, and texture to fulfill an instant need with astonishing personal style. It called to mind Anni Albers’ brilliant words.

Creative Thinking is a Martial Art

SO GREAT, wherever this few seconds of inspiring outside-the-box thinking came from.

Siloing on the Island of Creativity (S.B. Dworski)

S.B. Dworski reflects on the nature of being “siloed”, which most of the world is grappling with, and a new way to think about it.

House Paint by Artists + Why (Katharina Grosse, Andrea Zittel)

After months being seriously home-bound, I’ve found myself looking around my space for ways to shift my head. The work of several artists provided both inspiration and illumination as to why…

Why Walk in Hard Times (Rilke)

We take a walk daily because it never fails to refresh our thinking, change our view of things, calm us. Especially, in these most stressful times. It is perhaps our most powerful medicine. Walking, we find our mind shifting, ideas sparking, problems beginning to yield in ways we never expect. Rilke nailed it in A Walk:…

How to Redeem Life’s Spoilers (Andy Goldsworthy and Hala Alyan)

For over a week, the work of a poet and an artist seemed to be in conversation,
helping us understand a fearsome part of living.

Improvising: on the Edge

In the 16th century, an Italian artist named Cesare Vecellio began to use the long “fourth” outside edge of books as a canvas on which to make small paintings… a reminder of possibilities hiding in plain sight…

Improvising on a Rainy Day in Paris in 1924

This image with the caption, “Parisians navigate flood waters by walking across rows of chairs, 1924”, reminded us of the essential nature of improvisation.

Phyllida Barlow’s Fearless Embrace of Chance

One of the best things to come out of the months of Covid-19 lockdown has been extraordinary films from art galleries and museums. One of the best of is about the English sculptor Phyllia Barlow. It provides an illuminating counterpoint to the many life questions that the virus has thrown into relief.

How to Indirectly Help New Ideas Grow

We recently re-discovered “Eating Grapes Downwards” a poem we’d loved and somehow lost track of. Christian Wiman describes the mysterious creative process we cannot control, and often aren’t even aware of, but that is part of every life. With instructions for how to navigate…

Why Starting Each Day with a Poem is ‘As Necessary as Bread’

Eight years ago, afriend and I discovered that reading – or listening to – a poem has a hugely beneficial effect. Here’s the backstory, the poets we rely on, and some poetry.

The Onion and Riz Ahmed on The Pressure to Be Productive During Lockdown

Perspective we need: The Onion’s sublimely funny, spot-on commentary on the pressure to be creative during the “free time” of quarantining + Riz Ahmed’s wise view.

Sonny Rollins on Losing Yourself In the Divine and His Sabbatical Playing on the Williamsburg Bridg

This sublime short film is about “saxophone colossus” Sonny Rollins’ two-year musical sabbatical playing on New York’s Williamsburg Bridge and what he found there.

Sea Change Can Be Contagious (Susan Dworski, W.S. Merwin)

In posts and emails, I shared the questions fueling Improvised Life’s new architecture and many changes. Among the deeply affirming messages I received from readers, the most interesting was from long-time contributor Susan Dworski. She wrote of the contagious aspect of this sea change.

The Lights: A Father and Son’s Luminous Monument to Creative Obsession

Every December in a village in northern Argentina, Jorge Gervasi and his son transform their modest family home into an elaborate display of blinking lights. This sweet, slightly Fellini-esque short film captures the hard work, missteps and dreams that go into it their remarkable Christmas monument.

Lee Krasner on How to Build Joy, Discovery and the Unexpected into Work and Life

Artsy’s Alexxa Gotthardt combed through interviews with legendary abstract expressionist artist Lee Krasner for her insights into “how to be an artist”, with three essential lessons.

Wendell Berry on The Real Work We Do

We know quite a few people who are making major life changes these days, living with the question of what to do next, waiting for the path to become clear. What’s the mindset to embrace in limbo: all questions, few clues, no answers?

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