ideas from artists Archives

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.

Mandy Patinkin’s Prayer While Feeding the Dog + Blessings from John O’Donahue and Bob Dylan

From his retreat at his upstate cabin, legendary actor Mandy Patinkin sings in Hebrew as gets his dog Becky’s food for her. We were surprised to discover that what he is singing is a prayer. And that got us thinking about blessings to accompany simple tasks of daily life.

The Cosmic Meaning of Polka Dots and How to DIY Them (Yayoi Kusama)

We love the green polka dots in this down-at-heels kitchen, a perfect way to jazz up a wall. It got us thinking about their cosmic meaning and how to make them without laboriously holding up stencils.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti on Social Climbing Downward

This quote from the great Lawrence Ferlinghetti, recently-departed poet and founder of San Francisco’s legendary City Light’s Bookstore, expresses an incredibly refreshing worldview…

Matisse’s Homemade Wallpaper

When we looked closely at this stumbled-upon image of Henri Matisse, we realized that the wallpaper behind him was really tacked up prints and drawings. Brilliant. Looking for more, we found a trove of ideas to employ.

Amanda Gorman’s Mantra, Why Using Your Voice is a Political Choice + Her Poem for the Pandemic

Twenty-two year-old National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s reading of her poem The Hill We Climb at President Biden’s Inauguration was like big bright sun rising on the day. Her remarkable TedEx talk is full of fierce wisdom, and poetry unto itself…

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.

Cosmo Sheldrake’s Remarkable Musical Collaboration with Endangered Birds

Over 9 years at dawn, Cosmo Sheldrake carried recording gear, laptop, and sometimes a keybord into fields and woods to make music in collaboration endangered birds. The result is his new album Wake Up Calls; it is both charming and illuminating…

Marina Abramovic’s Public Service Announcement

In this video, performance artist Marina Abramovic describes the tree therapy she developed many years ago in the Amazon rainforest. It has become part of her “Abramović Method,

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…

Yayoi Kusama’s Reflections on the Year 2020

Early on in the pandemic, Yayoi Kusama sent out a defiant message “to the whole world”. We found it deeply heartening in the face of the very dark time. Recently, she shared this affirming message with her reflections on the year 2020…

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…

Enzo Mari’s ‘Ecolo’ Transforms Plastic Bottles into Sculptural Vases

In the 1970s, legendary furniture designer Enzo Mari pioneered the idea of “autoprogettazione”, roughly translated, “self design”, projects that he hoped would empower people to create with their own hands. With “ecolo” he applied the idea to plastic bottles…