Lisa Call

Ritual

For the last month I’ve done yoga first thing in the morning for 30 minutes. I used to rush through this task only a few times a week and didn’t put much thought into it. Now I have somewhat of a ritual.

A part of this ritual is to open my blackout shades. In the past I didn’t do this to save energy and my bedroom stayed dark year round. It wasn’t a big deal since I’m never there but now I love letting in the light every morning.

I recently signed up for wind power so my home electricity usage is carbon neutral so I feel less guilty about the few dollars it costs each month because the shades are open. I love how open and light the room feels now. Tossing a lot of junk that was in there probably helped also.

Sunrise

This morning when I opened the shades it was very gray and my initial thought was it was going to be a pretty drab day. But turns out it was earlier than I thought and the sun wasn’t up yet. A few minutes into the yoga I saw a hint of pink and next thing I knew the entire sky was incredible.

Near the end I hunted down the camera and took a few pictures.

Although don’t let the pictures fool you – like all suburbanites my neighbors are not far away – I just pointed the camera up and cropped a bit. The uncropped photos are on smugmug (hurray – I processed the photos right away as I intended for this year!).

Structures #8    ©2002    39"x 86"

Stop Complaining

Late last year I committed to going 21 days complaint free, in a row. I’ve succeeded in this task a few single days and I’m now very aware of my behavior. It’s been a humbling and eye opening experience but also a very positive one and I’m sure I will be successful as it is a priority.

I find letting go of the negativity is a huge help in holding intent in all areas of my life. I just do stuff, instead of making up excuses and complaining about why I can’t.

 
Along those lines I find this Nike video to be very powerful. I don’t like it when I sound like this:

Structures #8

I’ve been reprocessing some older images, this one included. I decided to flip the image and show it horizontal in this post as that was how it was originally designed. It can be hung either horizontal or vertical. I wrote about making this piece a while back in this article. Short story is that it was the result of living in New Zealand for 5 months.

Related Posts

Transitioning and Intent
Holding Intent – Part I

Structures #35    ©2005    49"x32":

 
I am super happy to announce that the above piece, Structures #35, the piece I use to brand my website, blog, business cards, etc has been purchased by the University Hospitals in Cleveland. The piece was installed in the Twinsburg Medical Center earlier this month.

This is one of my favorite pieces and I use it for my online identity. Any avatar or place to put a photo of myself online, I use this artwork to represent me. I’m thrilled it’s found a home where many people will be able to enjoy it.

The art consultant, who has been absolutely wonderful to work with, sent me some pictures today and I think it looks great.

Twinsburg Medical Center
 

Structures #35 in it’s new home.
 

The piece is framed behind plexiglass. People have a very hard time keeping their hands off of textiles. There is something so appealing about the tactile nature of the fabric it can’t be resisted. It’s one of the reasons I work in the medium, although it presents some challenges when installing the work in public. I think they did a really nice job and am pleased with how it looks.

Another outside photo of the facility.

I love the way the lines and shapes in my work echo the lines in the building. It’s the first thing I noticed when I opened my email with all the images. Too cool. The piece was clearly made to live in this space.

 
This is the 3rd piece I’ve sold to be part of a public art collection and I am thrilled. Selling art is way cool. Selling it to be part of a public art collection is fabulous!

You can see pictures of one of my older pieces installed in my local town hall here. I need to get some photos of the other public art piece, sold to a library many years ago. I wonder if they still have it hanging.

Happiness!

Markings #3    ©2006    74"x66"

Goals vs. Intent

In my last post I talked about setting intent and promised next to talk about how I hold that intent.

I know I have a reputation of getting lots done and when it comes to achieving goals I have some of this figured out. Although I don’t think in a healthy way. I’m great at setting goals and marching towards reaching them. Setting intent is a deeper practice and something I just started working on. I want to focus on intent with these posts but I’ll talk about goals also.

Unrealistic Goals

I have set an intent to have tremendous joy in my studio this year. I’m changing how I approach my studio time to honor the intent and to be an artist in a more healthy and positive way. It’s been an interesting process of learning to let go of the pressure to be in my studio but also getting things done. I’m only just beginning to understand how to do this.

With my solo show coming up in 4 weeks I panicked last week and made an insane schedule for my studio. A year ago I wouldn’t have thought it crazy. Just challenging. I spent the long weekend freaking out and doing just about anything other than studio work. I uploaded dozens of pictures to smugmug, I sorted through stuff in my basement to get rid of, I started reorganizing my studio, I photographed artwork, I cooked some yummy soup, etc.

I also saw myself falling back on patterns that don’t serve me. I didn’t go hiking and didn’t even get out for a walk as I promised myself, telling myself I didn’t have time. I ate junkier food. I surfed around the internet doing nothing.

I suspect I was rebelling against the ridiculous idea that I needed to make 8 new pieces in 4 weeks. Sure I could do it because it was a goal – I’m good and marching towards goals while letting the rest of my life become a wreck but it went completely against my intent for joy in the studio.

Realistic Goals

So I’ve shredded the schedule and decided I don’t need any more new work at all for my 2 solo shows. I have tons of excellent work that will make awesome exhibits. I started my Markings Series 2 years ago for exactly this show – I’ve got 19 completed pieces and room to hang only 12-15 of them. Of these 19 pieces only 2 have ever been in shows and most I’ve never even posted on the internet. Why would I need more? I don’t!

I have to give thanks to Christine Kane for helping with this realization. I recognized the unhealthy behavior (the first step in realizing I’m not holding my intent) and knew I needed to do something different. With her prodding I was able to take the necessary steps to dump the unhealthy behavior. I can’t recommend Christine’s eseminars enough for this type of self understanding.

Alignment

I’m back to my studio this week and loving it. I’m creating because I want to create not because I have to. One of the things I most love is making art, but the last year or two I’ve made it unfun in many ways. I’m now ready to embrace the joy again.

The goals I set need to be in alignment to my deeper intent. Then I know I can achieve both.
 

Materials Hard and Soft

The above piece is part of Materials Hard & Soft at the center for visual arts in Denton, Texas, which opens this weekend. Another of the juried shows I entered last fall. The runs through March 20, 2008.

Deanna Wood sent me an email the other day saying she had seen some of the show as they were hanging it and it looked great and my piece was up and looked nice. Yay – thanks for the note Deanna!

Center for Visual Arts
400 East Hickory St.
Denton, Texas 76201
Phone: 940-382-2787
Open 1-5pm Tuesday – Sunday
www.dentonarts.com

Structures #83    ©2007    12"x12"

Transitioning

My commute between home and office is a half hour drive each way. I spend this time doing various things: making phone calls, listening to music, getting annoyed at the traffic or listening to books on tape.

Being a "do-er" type person I like to accomplish things and doing stuff in the car, on the surface, seems to increase the amount of stuff I could get done in the day. Problem is most of these things are a distraction from what I find to be the best use of car time: transitioning and thinking about what comes next.

When I am not distracted and I get all excited on my drive home about working in my studio I find it effortless to just head right to it after dinner. If I’m on the phone when I pull in my driveway, and even worse still talking as I eat dinner, I am distracted and tend to end up in front of the computer reading blogs. I never took the time to think about how I wanted the evening to go so it goes no where, which is fine every once in a while but every day results in 0 hours of studio time for the week.

Too Tired

How tired I am has less to do with my studio time than my thoughts as I transition back home. Yes working all day and being a parent and paying bills and fixing cars and all those other things take energy. If I focus on how exhausted I should be on my drive home it is pretty much guaranteed I will do nothing that evening.

I had a friend that used to talk about how much I slept almost every day. I would generally say I was tired and worn out. I didn’t really think this but I used it as an excuse for getting out of things I didn’t want to do (which is a whole other issue – I should have just been honest). But sure enough I eventually felt tired all the time after saying it so often. I’ve since put an end to those conversations and amazingly I rarely feel tired or worn out anymore.

Sure there are days that are draining but I try not to focus on it and I rarely find this to be a problem. I’ve made getting 7-8 hours a sleep every night a pretty high priority. I go to bed around 9:30 every night – quite unfashionably early but since I get up at 5:30 it is really important to me.

Setting Intent

Now that I’m taking Christine Kane’s eseminar I have new words for this transitioning: Setting Intent. I also have a deeper understanding for how to go about it.

I protect my drive home time. I ignore the traffic (okay I’m still working on this – but I try not to let it bother me – it’s a fact of my current life choices – I accept that). I don’t listen to books on tape and I don’t make phone calls. I do listen to music some days but I’ve been embracing the silence more and more. I’m consciously setting my intent for the evening.

Morning Routine

I also have a new routine in the morning. Instead of rushing through a shower and then getting sucked into email and blogs I spend at least 30 minutes doing yoga, journaling and setting my intent for the day. It’s a much gentler way to start my day and I find myself much more relaxed and happy.

I’ve now done this 21 days in a row. So according to some experts this is now a habit and I will keep doing it. I’m not sure I’m buying that magic 21 day number but it’s no longer difficult to do this. At the beginning of the month I would have to force myself to stay in my bedroom and do the stuff. A few days I cheated and read email first but I went back and did the yoga and journaling. Now I just do this as matter of fact.

The real test will be when my kids return home from Europe in March and I have to be out of the house at 7am with them in tow. I fully intend on keeping this practice and by march it should be fairly solidly rooted into my daily routine and not a problem.

How to Set Intent

When I first started writing about my intent for the day I wasn’t really sure how to go about it or even what it meant. Being very goal oriented the first week or so it look suspiciously like a to-do list. Okay – it was a to-do list. That is a form of setting intent.

Now I’m looking deeper and leaving my todo lists for random scraps of paper about the house as I used to do. Here’s a bit of what I wrote today:

My thoughts create my world. If I think I’m going to be stressed and busy I will be. If I think I am going to be relaxed. I am.

I will pay close attention to my thoughts today. Looking to focus on calmness. To embrace effortlessness. I will be positive.

As I near the home stretch for my solo show opening in 1 month I am struggling with a rather long to-do list. I’ve had a few panicked times this weekend as I wrap my head around the work I want to do for the show. I’m working at approaching it with a lot less stress than normal, as the above thoughts indicate. It is really helping.

 
This is getting pretty long so another day I’ll write about things I’m doing to help me hold my intent. Learning to set the intent in a positive way is the first step. Actually following through is also important.

Structures #83

One of the activities I completed this weekend was to photograph a pile of new artwork. Structures #83 was a piece I made last fall while I was making the work for the Arvada Center show. It didn’t end up fitting in with the 9 pieces I selected so it got set aside. If you click to see the larger image you can hopefully see all the different thread colors I used to add texture to the composition.

I absolutely love the yellow in this piece. It’s so cheerful. I got the color pretty accurate on my monitor at home, which was another cheerful thing. I’m getting more courageous clicking on things in photoshop and my results get better each session.

On my todo list (now pushed back to March or April) is a rewrite of my website. I am going to put all of my small work on the website with prices. I thought I’d never put prices on my website but having the courage to admit to myself that I want to sell my art and that selling art is not a bad thing, I’m all for letting the world know it’s for sale. These small 12" x 12" pieces are $250 each, including the 9 pieces from the Arvada Center show:

Structures #90, Structures #86, Structures #85
Structures #87, Structures #88, Structures #81
Structures #89, Structures #91, Structures #82

Structures #47    ©2007    61"x76"

Contemporary Crafts Exhibition

The 29th Annual Contemporary Crafts Exhibition opens this friday in Mesa, Arizona. This is one of the juried shows I entered last fall. Structures #47 will be part of the show.

They do a wonderful job hanging the show, which is curated by Michael Monroe, and the building and grounds are beautiful. A few images from last years show are now on smugmug here.

They’ve created an online invite shown below (click for larger image).

 
In case the image is difficult to read:

29th Annual Contemporary Crafts
January 25 – March 9, 2008
For hours, location and more info: www.mesaartscenter.com

My Solo Show at Macky

Yesterday I scheduled the opening reception for my solo show opening next month in Boulder Colorado. It will be Saturday, February 23 from 2-4pm with an artist talk at 3pm. I have 1 month to get everything ready for this show. So time to stop uploading images to smugmug and get to my studio.

Tomorrow I’ll photograph artwork and create a postcard invitation and write the statement for the show for the press release. If you’d like to receive a post card you please email me your name and address and I will add you to my mailing list.

You can also sign up for my email newsletter. The first one will be mailed out in the next few months.

A Mess of Images

In early 2005 I bought my first ever digital camera, an SLR Nikon D-70. I love the camera and it takes amazing photos. Over the past 3 years those photos keep multiplying and they have become rather unruly and unorganized.

I’m currently in the process of decluttering my house and life and cleaning up these images is on the list of jobs to tackle. It’s a big job.

First step was to figure out what to do with them. I want to share them, I want to print them, I want to organize them. And most of all – I don’t want them to be a hassle. [note - I'm not talking about the images I have of my artwork - that's a whole other mess - but photos of everything else].

An Effortless Solution

Instead of researching and hunting around for the perfect solution I decided to take advantage of someone else’s research (my dad’s) and I’m putting my photos on SmugMug. It’s not free but it’s only $40 a year, a small price to pay for storage of all of my images. And because there is a fee there are no ads. It’s a really nicely designed site and so far I’m quite pleased with it.

I’m doing a weekly upload to smugmug and by the end of the year I will have everything organized and sorted out. Along the way I am sharing the pictures with the folks I promised I’d share them with (sometimes years ago). Yay! As I take new photos I am uploading them in a timely manner.

After putting the images on the website I am deleting the images from my computer. SmugMug keeps 4 backup copies of the files in 3 different states. I can’t come close to that kind of redundancy without a lot of effort. I get unlimited storage/bandwidth and I can print the images from the site (as can the people I share them with).

Definitely hassle free.

I love the idea of deleting them from my computer. I’m throwing away all my negatives from my print pictures also. It’s so freeing to get rid of this stuff I will never do anything with.

I’m going to be printing some of them, family ones for albums, inspiration ones to put on my wall and be inspired by. I’ve rarely (as in maybe once) printed my digital images in the last 3 years so this is a new exciting thing for me. Okay – I admit – learning technology sometimes prevents me from doing things – printing digital pictures was hurting my head – but no more! Yes I’m a software engineer and hand code the html for my website but I don’t know how to text message on my cell phone.

SmugMug Details

You can check out my smugmug site. I’ve got some public galleries in the inspiration category (some photos from Arizona and from North Carolina) and a few images from a show out in Arizona last year.

If you want the marketing stuff about SmugMug it is here. If you want to sign up you get a $5 discount if you have a coupon from a referral – you can put in my email address or use this code ZnhmaNpn2n1mk . Not required but $5 is nice. I get $10 off on my next renewal if someone does this so that’s also nice.

Above Image

The photo at the top is a close up section of one of the pictures I have on smugmug – it’s an aloe plant damaged by frost.

I’m so happy!

Structures #55    ©2006    33" x 74"

Stuck

I’ve talked about them before. On and on. Saying I won’t enter them, or limiting how many I enter. All the drawbacks, etc.

Then I went and entered a bunch last fall in the midst of me feeling like I wasn’t getting anything done in my life and I was feeling pretty down. Given that my dad was sick and passed away in October and my boyfriend of 2+ years broke up with me a few weeks before the funeral, I am going to say in hindsight I was probably WAS being way too hard on myself.

But enter the shows I did, and as usual, I got accepted, which is, of course, why I entered. I knew I’d get in, I knew it would boost my ego and I’d feel better.

So I ask myself – If I knew I would get in – why was I entering these shows? It sure sounds like the behavior of someone that is stuck in an easy comfortable place and not challenging herself.

I know, I’ve said it before. This time I’m going to listen. A few weeks ago I was ready to swear off every juried show out there and declare that I would never again enter any juried show ever.

I decided to let these thoughts sit for a while and see how it feels.

Selling Art

I came to the conclusion that there are a couple of juried shows that might still be worth the expense. There is something that seems so wrong about the artist paying to exhibit their art, but if the benefits out way the costs it can be worth it.

Today, for me, that means the show needs to sell a lot of work, and more specifically my work. If I believe the show can do that, then I will enter it. Right now there are 2 shows that I have this faith in – one is Quilt National and the other is Art Quilts Elements. And I’m open to the shows I entered this last fall giving me the same faith by selling my work during the show.

The above piece is currently traveling with Quilt National 2007. It didn’t sell at the opening but I’m ready for it to sell now. I think this is one of my really excellent pieces so I believe it will find an owner that will love it enough to purchase it.

I love being an artist but I am done paying to be an artist. My art is going to sell, and I am going to get unstuck and move my art career forward.

Other Thoughts on Juried Shows

I’ve been planning on this post for a few weeks, waiting for my thoughts to gel. Then today Alyson’s newsletter and blog post over on art biz blog were on this exact topic. Some of the very questions I was asking myself about juried shows. A highly recommended read.

[The newsletter link will only be current until Jan 21, 2008 - read it quick because it's a really excellent list of questions to think about when entering juried shows. Her weekly newsletters are an excellent source of art business advice - worth much more than the price - free! You can sign up through the newsletter link above.]

I’ve mentioned a few times I was curating a show at the Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Early in 2007 I contacted 4 artists who’s artwork I admire (Deidre Adams, Pam Rubert, Joanie San Chirico and Jeanne Williamson) and asked them if they would like to look for venues to show our work together. I already had a solo show at Lux schedule for 2008 and a few weeks after I contact these artists, I was asked to curate a show in conjunction with my solo show, tada, instant show. Interesting how things tend to happen like this.

Today I picked the work for the curated show. I printed out the available work and cut walls to size and played around until I found a layout that would work. It was pretty fun to play around.

In addition I’ve been working on a website for this show the last month and it’s now ready to unveil: distinctive-directions.com. The website includes a blog that all of us will be participating in so check that out also: distinctive directions blog. Today’s post is a short introduction to the artists in the show.

Here are the mock ups for the show:

 
My work for the solo show, Fencing In or Keeping Out, will go into the corner that is empty. It will be all new work from my Structures series.

What is Art?

Many years ago my perception of art was Art. Big expensive stuff. Things that only rich people could buy. It was a very restrictive view point on what art can be and is. As a result I never considered myself the type of person that would ever buy Art. Instead I bought posters/prints of artwork I liked and paid ridiculous sums to frame the prints and then ta-da – I had Art, or at least a copy of it.

Some where along the way my opinion changed. Art is way more than the stuff we see in museums. The idea that I, myself, could buy art – original amazing art – was a revelation to me. I feel silly that it took me so long to get this (especially since I’m an artist) but doesn’t matter. I got it.

Now I buy art. I am an art collector. My collection is small and so far I’ve only purchased fairly inexpensive pieces but I love each one dearly and they make me smile.

Budgeting to Buy Art

A few years ago to aid in my art buying I carved out a small but important chunk of my monthly budget for art. Every month my bank automatically moves $50 from my checking account into a special savings account that I’ve titled Art.** If I see some art I want to buy I know I have money for it and I just buy it. It’s not a challenge to fit it into my budget as it’s already in my budget.

I’m saving up now for a larger piece so I haven’t bought much in a while but it’s so cool to think that in just 2 years I’ll have enough money to buy a piece of $1200 art. Effortlessly. The money will just be there. I never think about that money except in terms of buying art. It’s labeled art, it’s for art and I would never use it to buy shoes (okay I never buy shoes anyway – but you get the idea).

As my income goes up my art budget also goes up. Next thing ya know I’ll have one of those really cool houses full of amazing art that I just love. I used to be jealous of people that had this but no more – because I am building the same thing myself.

 
Do you buy art? Are you an artist? How do you budget for your art purchases?

 
 
** This is how I budget most of the big ticket items in my life. I use a credit union and have a bunch of share/savings accounts designated for special things, such as christmas and vacations. I love this hands off way of paying for things that might seem like a shock to the budget but in reality we know they are coming.