Lisa Call

Yesterday I made a comment that I keep my master list of goals in an excel spreadsheet. I got a few questions about how I go about doing this and in the past I promised some people I would write in more detail about my goals, so here is that long over due posting.

I use an Excel spreadsheet to list out my goals because I like the grid it provides. I can easily add columns and rearrange the information in a much more flexible way than with a Word document. I also like the multiple tabs in Excel so I can organize my information by groups (tabs) also. I don’t use any of the numeric calculations provided by the spreadsheet software, just the organizational structure.

The first tab in my goals spreadsheet are my big picture goals. These are things about where I want my career to be in the future. Each goal has a date or timeline associated with it but no details on what it will take to achieve the goal. They are the dream that I’m determined to turn into reality.

From this I have determined there are 3 areas that I need to concentrate on to make it happen: the artwork, marketing materials (website, portfolio, etc), and promotional activities(entering shows, other opportunities to promote my work, etc).

Next I have a tab for each of these 3 areas. At the top of each tab I have written down the things I feel I need for each of these areas to achieve the goals from the big picture list. Everything from the big picture list has to link to items on these sublists and everything on these sublists has to be related to 1 or more of the big picture goals. This is all about making sure my actions will get me to the desired goals and that I don’t get side tracked. Each of these also have a deadline for when I will complete the item.

For each of these big picture items I break it down into smaller steps I feel I need to do to complete the item, with deadlines for each step.

Once a week or every 2 weeks I will sit down with my spreadsheet and figure out my todo list for that week. I break my list down into 3 sections – 1 for art, 1 for materials, 1 for promotion and I try to do work in each area each week. Some weeks focus more on the art (this week for example) but other weeks it might be more about the marketing materials (the week I concentrated on my images) or promotion. The idea is to keep a balance between the activities.

Within a year or 2 the marketing material goals should be mostly met and the only activities in that area will be updating the materials as I move forward. I’m concentrating on bringing these materials up to par at the beginning because I can’t really promote myself until I have the tools to do so.

When I do these weekly lists I often break down some of the steps into even smaller chunks that I can do in an hour or less. I also try very hard not to put things on my list that don’t directly relate back to my big picture goals. I don’t always manage to do this (usually a result of not saying “no” when I should have) but having the lists does help me evaluate if an opportunity fits into my plan.

 
I came up with this structures for my goals after taking a marketing salon with Alyson Stanfield and then combining it with the structure I use for writing requirements for software projects. We have a very detailed procedure at work (large software company) about how to write requirements. First we have business requirements – the WHY of the project. Next we have user the requirements – the WHAT of the project. Finally we have functional requirements – the HOW of the project. My art goals are structured in very much the same way. The big picture items are the why. Then I have the what – the big items for each category. And finally the how – the detailed steps for each of these items.

We use a tool at work that helps us write and structure our requirements and one of the features it has is “traceability”. Every functional requirement must trace back to a user requirement, which then traces back to a business requirement. So we don’t do things that aren’t essential for the project. In addition every business requirement must trace to 1 or more user requirements, which them must trace down to specific functional requirements. So this ensures that we don’t forget or miss something.

While I can’t do this type of “tracing” of my goals in an Excel spreadsheet I do try to make sure I’m doing something similar – looking back and making sure I’ve covered all my bases and I’m not wasting time on useless stuff.

 
So now the confession. This spreadsheet is what I would call a “work in progress”. I know what I want it to say and I know how to structure it. I just haven’t yet completed it, a lot of it is in place but it doesn’t have enough detail to really be a solid plan to work on.

But it’s time to get this done so I just signed up for Alyson’s new Art Marketing Action Circles. What a great way to get things on track.

I recently listened to the audio recording of
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy on the recommendation of Alyson Stanfield. I borrowed the audio tape from my local library.

Tracy mentions at the beginning of the book that you can only teach someone something they already know and that many of this tips might be familiar. That was definitely the case with me. I make lists and prioritize, etc,etc. This book was a nice refresher of those techniques.

The book is well organized and easy to read (or listen too). I usually can’t make it through most self help books but this one was short enough I could stay focused. Well mostly, it did get a bit repetitive and I maybe didn’t give it my full attention at the end but overall it was pretty good.

It’s packed full of tips to get past some of our most common techniques for putting things off. The book helped me get past some serious procrastination at my day job and I’ve used some of the techniques to prioritize my to do list for my art business.

My favorite tip is something I’ve always done naturally. I make master lists with all of my goals and then make smaller lists for each week picking the items I want to accomplish that week. Then most evenings I’ll make a list for the following day. The result is lists all over my house (I’m not much for day planners – although the master list is on my computer in an excel spreadsheet) . I find all those lists a great indication I’m making progress, which inspires me to keep working.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my quilts was purchased by my local town and used to live above a xerox machine in the “mainstreet center” (an old school the town purchased for hosting town related activities).

A few years back it disappeared and I’ve always wondered where it went. My son volunteers for a local teen court and he mentioned he thought he saw my quilt in the building where he is a juror so I emailed someone that works in the building and sure enough my quilt hangs over the front desk at the main town hall. Very cool! I’ve been in this building a few times, you’d think I’d notice my own work hanging on the wall. Hm. Daydreaming too much maybe?

I’ll have to go over and take pictures of it in it’s new home (if they’ll let me – these days there’s always the fear they will think I’m a terrorist).

Welcome To Parker ©1997, 51″ x 45″

I grew up a few miles down the road from where these pictures were taken at the White Rock Canyon overlook. These aren’t just my inspiration, these pictures are part of who I am.

I took the pictures last summer and I’m thinking it’s time to go back again soon. It’s so beautiful in northern New Mexico.

White Rock is a bit north and west of Santa Fe, up near Los Alamos, where they make the bombs.

 

Black Mesa as seen from the overlook (looking north):

The canyon looking south from the overlook:

The view looking east:

It’s been a month since I posted my weekly goals. I’m not sure what happened to March. Getting sick really slowed me down. It’s been 3 weeks and I’m still fighting a cold.

Although I looked over the list I posted on February 28 and I didn’t do to bad on that list and I have accomplished quite a bit more in addition. Most notably I created a really great portfolio now that my images are all organized and I sent it off to a local gallery that was specifically looking for fiber artists. Even if nothing comes of it I feel it was a great accomplishment to get the portfolio finished. I’ve entered a few shows, shipped some quilts, updated my resume, artist statement and bio and also did some work for some other opportunities that have come my way. Seems I’ve been in the office almost every day the past month.

I have a long list of other things I want to do on the business side but I’m also really wanting to spend some quality time in my studio. Last week I designed and pieced Structures #58. I have ideas to continue with that series but I made a piece that was to be the start of a new series while in Idaho last October with Nancy Crow and I really want to get going on my ideas. I have piece #2 of this series on my design wall and I started sewing it together today.

So my goals for the next week are as follows:

• Finish sewing together quilt #2 in the new series.
• Design and start sewing quilt #3 in the new series.
• Do another Plains drawing.
• Organize my office. Last weekend I finally bought some shelves to finish organizing my art business stuff and it’s time to get things on the shelves.

So very little business stuff other than the organizing. I need a break as I’ve been spending more than 1/2 of my time on the business and it’s time to rebalance and just focus on the artwork for a while.

Yesterday I wrote about Structures #8, which I made while I lived in New Zealand.

One of the inspirations for the Structures series, as I talk about in my artist statement, are walls: brick walls, stone walls, etc. I love the lines and shapes and design of these structures.

Here are a couple pictures taken in New Zealand that inform my work:

 

Tonight it’s time to look back at an older piece Structures #8. First the images then the story. _{Click for larger images, this is an 8 foot tall quilt so you can’t see much detail in the little image.}

 
Structures #8 ©2002   39" x 86"

 
Detail:

 
I lived in New Zealand from Dec 2000 through April 2001. Three months were spent touring the country in a mini van and living in a tent with my kids (at the time 8 and 4) and my now ex husband. February and March were spent in Dunedin so my husband could work at Otago University doing research and teaching a class.

 
Camping before the Christmas holidays was quiet and peaceful:


 
It was a little more hectic during the holidays:


 
Living out of a mini van is an interesting experience:


 

My plan for those 2 months was to see the local Dunedin sites with the kids but we ended up putting them both into school and I was faced with 2 months with no kids on many days. What a treat. I hadn’t planned on quilting while in NZ but I couldn’t help myself. While I did do some touristy things, I did what any normally obsessed artist would do – I set up a quilt studio in our tiny apartment.

 
Our apartment in Dunedin:


 

I ordered 100 meters of fabric, some procion MX dyes and buckets and turned the tiny laundry room into a dye studio for a few days.

 
Dyeing Fabric in the Laundry Room:


 
100 meters of newly dyed New Zealand muslin:


 

I then bought a sheet of 8′x4′ foam insulation and flannel and built myself a design wall, borrowed a sewing machine from one of the very gracious local quilters, and took over the entire dining room and a portion of the living room (the only common areas of the apartment).

 
Studio in the apartment:


 

While I was waiting for the dyes to arrive I sewed a twin sized bed quilt for my daughter, I had to hunt around but finally found some warm and natural type batting and finished it fairly quickly. I then made a small practice quilt to warm up (the blue green quilt on the design wall in the above photo – it’s never been finished) and then Structures #7 (which I’ll post another time – it’s travelling and I don’t have good digital images right now).

With maybe 3-4 weeks left in Dunedin I started Structures #8. I spent a lot of time picking the fabrics and planning the block design. I know the colors were influenced by Dunedin. Our apartment was on the hillside and overlooked all the colorful roof tops and houses down the hill. This quilt always reminds me of our view from the dining room of that apartment.

 
Structures #8 In Progress:


 

I finished piecing this quilt top together only a day or 2 before we left Dunedin. I’m guessing other folks might have spent their time in a foreign city doing more site seeing but I guess I’m clearly obsessed with my art.

I also feel that I really got to see the real Dunedin. In addition to gymnastics and swimming classes with the kids where I met the mom crowd, I also attended the local quilt guild meetings during my time there (where I showed slides and gave short talk on my work) .

I was also invited to join 3 small quilt groups. One that met every 2 weeks and did a project together, a small art quilt group, and a wonderful quilt bee that met weekly in each other homes. It was quite an honor to be invited to join this group. Sitting and talking with these ladies once a week was such a treat. I really got a feel for what life was like in Dunedin and I will always cherish those memories.

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend working on another drawing in the Plains series. I really enjoy the medatative work to draw the hundreds of lines freehand.

Plains #5 ©2006    12.5"x 9.5"

There are times in life when all the pieces that used to fit together so perfectly no longer seem to work. Something shifted. The cause or problem can’t always be identified, it’s just known that something is a miss. Times like this are very frustrating and there is hope that things fall back into place but the fear is that things will never be the same again.

Time for another workshop review. You can see all of my reviews to date in the How – Education category.

I took the workshop “Painting with Fabric” from Jean Neblett in 1996. I have always loved Jean’s work and back in 1996 she was one of my favorite fiber artists. I looked for some links to her work but really couldn’t find much. This piece, Green Meditation, is from 1994. I’m not sure of the date of this piece El Rio Grande, which can be found on this Art Quilt Network page, but it is definetly more recent and I still love her work.

This 5 day workshop was my second art/quilt workshop. We did several exercises that Jean notes were to “open the creative flood gates”. Some were art school type exercises, for example we drew 100 pictures of the same object, I think 1 minute per drawing. We also did some more personal exercises where we investigated our thoughts and feelings, for example we did an exercise making masks.

I’ll have to admit that at the time I didn’t really “get” the purpose of these exercises. And in fact I didn’t really get much from the workshop. Truth is I just don’t work this way. Thinking of a word that is meaningful to me and then making a quilt to depict the feeling – that’s just not me. It’s not that my work isn’t very personal and doesn’t have very explicit emotional content, I just approach my work very differently.

Now it’s not that the workshop was bad, it’s just it didn’t work for my personality. I know a lot of people that loved the workshop and got quite a lot out of it.

I think back and I know that even today with significant amount of art experience I wouldn’t enjoy this workshop. My work is very personal but I approach it in a very different way than Jean does. Nothing wrong with this but it’s good to recognize what does and doesn’t work for me.

Here are a few pieces I made in the workshop. I doubt anyone would ever recognize this work as mine. At least I hope so. They are certainly not my best work. Or in the words of my son “those are scary”.

This first piece was the “pick a word and make a quilt” exercise. I was 8 1/2 months pregnant when I took this workshop. (Admittedly being that pregnant could have affected my experience.) My personal word was “joy” at the upcoming birth of my daughter. This little quilt still hangs in my daughter’s bedroom, so at least someone likes it.

 
Joy ©1996   17" x 17"

 
This piece is the result of drawing my safety pin key chain over and over again 100 times. I can’t say I enjoyed doing this exercise. And I can safely say I don’t like the resulting quilt. The safety pin key chain was given to me in high school by my best friend. A couple years ago the over zealous NTSB took it away from me at the airport (I almost elected to miss the flight instead of lose the keychain and in hind sight that would have been a better option given the fate of my trip) so this little quilt is nice to have as a memento of that gift. It’s quilted with little safety pin figures, which you can kind of see in the larger version (click on the image).

Unnamed ©1996   19" x 19"

This small quilt was made in the middle of making Structures #28 in 2004. It had 2 purposes.

First I needed a small quilt to test out my idea for quilting Structures #28. In the end I like the quilting on the smaller piece better than I like how it turned out on #28.

Second, I was in a critique group that was doing a theme show about cactus and I needed a piece to participate. In my mind these are cactus on a hillside near Scottsdale, AZ. It is definitely an abstract interpretation but to me it seems very prickly. The quilt hung in the cactus show last summer in a small architecture firm in downtown Denver.

I suspect my (former) critique group wasn’t quite convinced this was a cactus quilt but since I wasn’t about to make something more representational I think they let it slide. I rarely will make a specific artwork for a specific show so this was quite an exception. While I was willing to make the quilt I wasn’t willing to make something that didn’t fit it my current series as I am very focused on these quilts.

I really like the little quilt and am glad I made it and it has definitely exceeded expectations because I just mailed the quilt to Florida this week where it will hang in the show Considering Quilts 2006 at the Atlantic Center at Harris House in New Smyran Beach. The show runs from April 1 – May 13, 2006. If you get a chance to see the show I’d love to hear about it.

 
Structures #26 ©2004   24" x 24"

 
Detail: