Lisa Call

I was “tagged” in fellow The Fiber Connection member Dijanne Cevaal’s blog to write 20 things about myself. I’ve kept the list mostly focused on art and am using the opportunity to show a few of my older pieces, which have never been published on the web. Probably not what I was supposed to do but I’m not good at rules.

I only made it to 11 because this was getting rather long for a single posting. I’ll do the other 9 another day (maybe).

I believe I’m supposed to tag some other artists to do something similar so I’ll tag Joanie San Chirico and Cathy Kleeman. The other 2 Fiber Connection members with blogs.

1) I started backpacking in the mountains of New Mexico when I was around 8 years old. Being outdoors, away from the crowds, has always been important to me. I prefer the landscape of the southwest - mountains, deserts, canyons, dry prairie. And brown brown brown. The colors of nature heavily influence my work.

2) This is one of my canyon inspired quilts from my previous series “chairs”. These are purchased commercial and hand dyed fabrics as this was prior to my dyeing of my own fabrics. It’s interesting to go back and look at older work and observe how the work has changed.

Chairs #5 © 2000, 43″x35″:

3) I went on a week long backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon in 2002 and made a series of quilts about the experience. This is one of them, an abstraction of the layers of the canyon.

Structures #16 © 2003, 48″ x 35″:

4) & 5) These are 2 other pieces about the Grand Canyon capturing the colors of some of the specific layers. These are the last 2 “chairs” pieces that I made and a good 3 years after the bulk of the other work in that series.

Chairs #16: Canyon Layers - Tonto Platform © 2003 6.5″x6.5″:

Chairs #17: Canyon Layers - Red Wall © 2003 6.5″x6.5″:

6)I lived in New Zealand for 5 months starting in December 2001. My husband (now ex), a professor, was on sabbatical. So we took the kids, aged 4 & 8, and spent over half of the time living on the road, sleeping in our tent or in cheap hostels, seeing all the sights there were to see. New Zealand is beautiful and we had a wonderful time.

7)When in Rome and all that. So while in NZ I jumped off the 43 meter high (141 feet) Kawarau Bridge, the worlds first bungy jump site. It was the most terrifying but most empowering experience of my life. After facing my fear of heights and successfully jumping off that bridge I figured there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do. Yes that is me in the picture.

8) & 9) I really loved the rocks in New Zealand because they are worn smooth by all the water they have. I started a small series of quilts about those rocks. They aren’t very literal and I’ve been told they look a bit more like cookies than rocks but it was the smoothness of the rocks I was trying to capture, not the actual rocks themselves (for that I have photos and a few pilfered souvenirs). I like these pieces just they way they are because they absolutely capture the essence that so fascinated me. For anyone that has been to the southwest you will appreciate that our rocks are all jagged and rough (hence the name Rocky Mountains) so this was a big deal for me.

Stones #4 © 2002 19″x28″

Stones #6 © 2002 13″x27″

10) My favorite color is purple. But I seem to rarely use it in my artwork as I tend more towards the browner side of the spectrum. Okay so brown isn’t on the color wheel, except here in the southwest. This piece is an exception.

Structures #12 © 2002, 31″x21″.