ideas from artists Archives

Kaffe Fassett on the Healing Power of Color

Color artist Kaffe Fassett likens color to oxygen, “…like breathing”. In this short video, he describes how he relies on color for healing, something it seems, we can all do:

Giant Twisting Balloons Inspire Furniture and Your Own Big Ideas

Designer Seung Jin Yang’s whimsical furniture appears to be made of the kind of twistable balloons used to entertain kids. OMG, we thought, could we make furniture out of balloons?

Isamu Noguchi on Reality as a Sculptural Experience

At the Noguchi Museum’s instagram, we saw a quote from Isamu Noguchi that changed our view of sculpture AND reality. It accompanied photographs of blind art students who toured the Museum with the sculptor in 1987. Their transformative effect surprised us.

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.

Pierre Soulages Invites You To Experience the Light Beyond Black

In this mesmerizing little film, Pierre Soulages slowly works black pigment to create different effects of light. He describes the very personal conversation at the heart of his luminous black paintings.

4 Ways to Shift Your Dark View from Yoko Ono

The news is so very terrible, it is weighing on everyone we know. Then we stumbled on some heartening messages from Yoko Ono in our archive that help to shift the view.

Simple Gifts (Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss) + Quarantine Bookshelf Exhibition

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.

Trees as Sanctuaries: Giuseppe Penone and Hermann Hesse

Giuseppe’s Penone’s moving sculpture in an empty square in Rome during lockdown brought to mind Hermann Hesse’s remarkable prose poem…

Ai Weiwei: On Home, Living in Isolation, Hope

Ai Weiwei’s thinking on purpose, home, isolation, hope are an insightful lens through which to consider our current circumstance. And especially, how the impossible becomes possible.

This Artist of Gardens Will Change How You See

Piet Oudolf is an artist who uses plants as his medium. He changed how we see landscapes and the possibilities of our own gardens.

Pat Steir: How to Occupy This Time on Earth

Pat Steir is one of our favorite artists for the dazzling beauty and surprise of her work. She speaks eloquently about the dark time we find ourselves in.

Jenny Holzer’s Very Important Messages

Fifty years after the first Earth Day, Jenny Holzer’s timely messages resonate more deeply than ever as we face unprecedented global health and environmental crises. As does her succinct commentary.

Yayoi Kusama’s Defiant Message To Covid-19

Today the very uplifting MESSAGE FROM YAYOI KUSAMA TO THE WHOLE WORLD flew over our transom: a poem that acts as a call to arms, waking us from the shock of quarantine…A healing dose of Kusama’s own Art Medicine.

The Discomfort You Feel May Be Grief in Disguise

A therapist friend emailed a surprising article from the Harvard Business Review. Several weeks into the pandemic, it is one of the most helpful things I’ve read.

Escape to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s Casa Azul

Transported via the virtual tour of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s Casa Azul in Mexico City, we found ourselves wandering through gardens, studios and living spaces: much-needed escape and delight.

5 Short Fierce Statements that Help ‘Dig a Cave into the Future’

In the face of relentlessly bad news, I randomly came across some powerful statements that snapped me awake from the daze I found myself in. Maybe they will do the same for you.

“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.

Thomas Ashcraft’s Hopeful Reminder in Fearful Times

Over the years, artist-scientist Thomas Ashcraft has made artful iterations of a message that we’ve found deeply heartening. Especially so now, in this anxious time…

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.

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.

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