Lisa Call

Markings #8    ©2006    56"x 55"

Markings #8

I’m still not sure where this piece came from as it is very different from most of my other work. Pink and bright yellow. Hm…

It’s the piece that comes to mind first when I think of these lines from my artist statement on the Marking Series:

The artwork also raises the question of how we handle the unforeseen, a break in the pattern. Disruption is often inevitable, no longer making it unexpected but part of the pattern itself.

 
Detail of stitching:

Markings #4    ©2006    56"x 55"

Distractions

When I left the workshop in Idaho in October 2005, where I completed the first composition for the Marking series, I was excited about doing more work in the new series.

I was so hyped up about it I decided to leave Sandpoint friday evening after the workshop was over instead of spending the night as planned. I figured I could make the 1150 mile drive back home in a day and half and it would give me all day sunday to work in my studio.

That plan worked out great and I was home by Saturday evening.

Unfortunately I came home to a big mess in my yard from a snow damaged tree. And to top off the distraction I managed to lock myself out of my house as I investigated the mess 5 minutes after returning home, barefoot and with no coat. I spent the next 2 hours at my neighbors watching bad TV waiting for the other neighbors with the keys to my house to return.

That drama was the end of any work in my studio for a while (it took a few weeks to clean up the mess in the yard) and when I returned I worked on my Structures series.

Drawing

Although I wasn’t investigating mark making with textiles I started drawing that fall. I started with objects but quickly graduated to lines. Lots of parallel lines. Pages full of them. You can see my drawings here.

With many months of drawing experience under my belt, in late March 2006 I decided it was finally time to go back and explore mark making in fabric. I feel taking the time to explore pencil drawing before jumping into this series was a good thing. I can’t say I exactly planned it but in looking back I feels right.

Back on Track

I decided to dedicate the entire month of April to an exploration of lines and I designed and constructed the compositions for Markings #2-#10. A fairly significant effort as these are all large pieces. Markings #9 was the only smallish piece.

I find that when I really focus like this, only on the design and composition leaving the surface stitching for later, that I can get into a flow. One pieces follows another and new ideas arrive faster than I can work on them. It was a very satisfying month.

Interestingly my blog posts from April 2006 give absolutely no clue I’m working on these pieces. Just like now I am writing nothing about what’s happening in my studio (I’m working on the surface stitching for Structures #72 and #73). I think it’s rare for me to discuss my current studio work. It needs to incubate for a while before I find words for what I’m doing.

Markings #4

In Markings #4 I was playing around with the values of the thin lines. In the top of the piece the lines go from light to dark and back light again. The bottom half is reversed.

 
Detail of stitching:

Markings #2    ©2006    71"x 54"

Markings #2

The second piece in the Markings series now on display in Boulder, Colorado. I took the new series as an opportunity to explore some new color combinations I hadn’t yet used in my Structures series, which tends to be more earth-toney.

Detail image:
 

Blog Feed Update

Today I made a small step in the process of updating my website. I’ve moved the feed for my blog. For those of you that are subscribed to my blog with a feed reader such as bloglines or google reader the feed URL has changed. The old URL will work but it will be a bit slow as it redirects to the new feedburner feed.

To speed things up you can delete the old feed and then resubscribe using the big orange button in my sidebar. Or by clicking this link here:

Subscribe to my new feed

I made this change because I was always curious how many people were subscribed to my feed. And now this will tell me. At least I think that’s what it will do.
 
For those of you that have no idea what I’m talking about, this doesn’t effect you so you can ignore this section.

Markings #1    ©2006    44"x62"

Cross Hatching

The idea for the Markings series began in September 2005 when I read an article on Danny Gregory’s blog, Everyday Matters, about cross hatching. His comments and images captured my imagination:

Cross hatching is quite miraculous. How is it that black ink lines on white paper have the ability to create an infinite number of shades of grey, to evoke all the colors of the rainbow and to suggest textures and materials and varied as silk and stone, glass and schnauzer hair?

I was hooked. I started drawing squares filled with lines in my sketch book.

• What if I could do that in fabric?
• Would parallel lines in fabric have the same power and beauty as that of a hand drawn line?
• Would it be interesting?
• Would it be technically possible?

Time to Play

Six weeks later I went to Sandpoint, Idaho, for a workshop with Nancy Crow where I spent 2 weeks essentially doing independent study. Although my focus was mostly on my Structures Series I took the time to do a small fabric sketch of my cross hatching idea:

After looking at this for a few days I decided to go for it and see what the idea would yield.

Markings #1

Having just driven across Wyoming and eastern Montana, with a stop at Little Big Horn, the grasses of the prairie were on my mind and I pulled out some soft golds and greens and dry grass colors and worked out my first composition. This is what it looked like before I started constructing the sections (I always cut all my lines and rough out my design on the wall before sewing):

 
The completed work, Markings #1 is at the top of this post and the detail image is below. This is still one of my favorites in this series as it brings back memories of the beautiful drive across Montana. This piece is included in the show Markings: Repetition and Pattern, currently in Boulder, CO.

Markings #16    ©2007    45"x 68"

Courage

I decided I wanted to give an artist talk during my show because I think there is huge value in talking about ones work out loud. I do a lot talking about my work in my head and I do a lot of writing about it, which are both super valuable. I’m looking to add more speaking about my work to my life.

It was also about courage. Doing something that seems scary is the only way to feel courageous.

For me getting up in front of a group of people and talking isn’t super scary because I love teaching. It is a little scary, I can’t deny that, but standing in front of group of people and rambling on is something I love doing and it’s why I love teaching.

My biggest fear was not standing up and talking but that I wouldn’t shut up and people would wander away bored.

Preparation

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I wanted to say about my artwork and wrote up an outline for the talk. I didn’t really practice it much other than to run through the outline in my head and get down the order of things I wanted to say and try to remember the main points I wanted to highlight. I think I do a better job speaking when I just ramble about a topic rather than repeat a rehearsed speech.

One thing I knew is I had never gone to an artist talk, or at least not one I had remembered so I was a little nervous I didn’t really know what one was. When asked by friends at work what an artist talk was I said I wasn’t sure as I had never seen one and probably should.

So the universe stepped in and a week before my talk a friend invited me to go see an artist talk at a gallery here in Denver. I didn’t find the talk very good but it was a great experience because while sitting there I finalized the outline for my talk by thinking about the things I wanted to hear as an audience member.

Intending an Audience

In early January I set an intent that there would be 30 or more people at my opening. This gallery has no mailing list of it’s own as their goal is to decorate the walls of the lobby of the theater. Although the gallery has amazing traffic going through during performances, which is why I love showing there. So those 30 people were most likely to find out about the show as a result of my publicity efforts (blogging, postcards, trying to get the press to pay attention).

I journaled about my intent for 30 people, told a few people about it and asked them to send me good thoughts along those lines.

The week before the opening many of my friends told me they weren’t going to make it to the opening. I tried not to panic and think: Where were those 30 people going to come from when the people I thought might be there weren’t going to be there?

Instead I told myself that this meant I would get a chance to meet new people. I took a deep breath and continued to believe that 30+ people would attend.

The Talk

Although I didn’t count, the number of people in attendance through the opening was near 30 with over 20 in attendance at my talk. Woohoo. I was thrilled.

To top it off an amazing artist I’ve had the pleasure of working next to in a workshop for 2 weeks came to my opening. From Chicago! She flew out to Denver just to see my show. I’m still smiling. What an honor and wonderful surprise.

I feel my talk went well. I said what I wanted to say and I loved every minute of it. People asked really great questions and I met some new people after the talk and enjoyed getting to talk with them.

And no one wandered off bored because I wouldn’t shut up. (at least that I noticed)

Markings #16

Another piece in my show, Markings: Repetition and Pattern. My thought in this piece was to include a wide open area in the composition. I had to rework the design a few times but I’m quite pleased with the final results. I’m definitely going to explore this idea in future work

In addition I managed to put a bit of white in this piece. One of my goals in 2007 was to put some white in my work. I didn’t get much in there but this is a start.

Markings #9    ©2007    37"x 40"

 
This is another of the pieces in my show Markings: Repetition and Pattern, currently hanging in Boulder.

I gave my artist talk yesterday and had a fabulous time. I’m choosing to spend my time away from the computer today so more tomorrow on the event.

Detail image:

Markings #7    ©2007    64"x 72"

Markings - Artist Statement

A while back I posted my first pass at an artist statement for the Markings series. Here’s the latest version that I’m using for the show: Markings: Repetition and Pattern.

I began drawing in 2005 and was quickly fascinated with cross hatching. I dispensed with drawing objects and became obsessed with drawing pages of closely spaced parallel lines in abstract patterns. I love the quality of the hand drawn line and wanted to capture the beauty of basic marking making in my textile paintings. The Markings series is a result of that investigation.

The series refers to the comfort humans derive from repetition. We are soothed by the well known patterns that result from duplication: telephone poles in a line, a grouping of trees in a forest, our unchanging daily routines. The artwork also raises the question of how we handle the unforeseen, a break in the pattern. Disruption is often inevitable, no longer making it unexpected but part of the pattern itself.

Artist Talk

Today is the artist reception for the show up in Boulder [links for parking and directions are on my website here]. I spent yesterday evening baking cookies for the event. I love baking and it seemed like a good way to relax before my artist talk today. First time I’ve ever given one but the word of the year is courage so I decided to give it a try.

Starting today and running over the next 14 days I’m going to post the images of the 15 pieces of artwork in the show. I’ll follow it up with installation images, so those of you that can’t make it will be able to see it virtually.

I’d send you each some cookies but wordpress doesn’t have that feature yet.

Markings #10

I decided to start with the piece on the show postcard. If you click the image you can see it in better detail. This is one of my favorite pieces in the series. It feels very Colorado to me - tree trunks and blue sky.

Here’s a detail of my usual very close parallel line surface stitching:

Structures #15    ©2005    12"x 13"

Blogiversary

Today marks the 3 year anniversary of my first blog post, which roughly corresponds to the purchase of my first digital camera. According to wordpress this is my 425th post.

Some numbers (because I like numbers). Assuming an average posting time of 45 minutes, which is probably on the low side, I’ve spent at least 320 hours writing blog posts over the last 3 years. That’s an average of 107 hours per year.

In comparison I spent 865 hours last year in my studio and probably around 1800-1900 hours at the day job and at most 20 hours watching TV shows for the year.
 

What I’ve Learned

After all that time I feel I should have some profound words of wisdom about blogging so I thought I’d make a list of what I think I’ve learned during this process. You can decide if it’s profound.

1. I make a lot of typos.
2. I rarely feel a need to correct typos that are not found within the first hour. I appreciate all my kind readers that gloss over my mistakes.
3. There are 2 types of posts that generate a lot of comments. Those that stirred up controversy and those that were very honest about my work and myself in a way that is somehow universally felt. I prefer the later and have been looking to avoid the former as it causes me to feel unhappy.
4. I’ve learned more about myself and my art through my consistent writing on the topic than through just about any other method. I have no plans to stop anytime soon.
5. I feel I belong to an amazing community of artists as a result of my blog, which makes this an extremely rewarding experience.
6. I change my mind a lot. If you read this entire blog you’ll see at one point I strongly advocated using the term quilt. I now use the term textile painting. The old me would have had an argument with the new me. The new me isn’t concerned with defending my choices nor getting others to agree with them or even like them. The only post I have ever deleted was on this subject because I decided I didn’t need to explain myself and it was generating controversy I had no intention of stirring up.
7. There is too much stuff in my sidebar. It makes me feel claustrophobic. When I redesign my blog very little will remain in the sidebar (much of it will move to separate pages - like the archives). It’s part of my decluttering - it’s invading all parts of my life. Simplify, organize, categorize, only keep what is really serving me and get rid of the noise.
8. My categories and tags are a jumble. They stress me out sometimes thinking about which to pick. This tells me I need to rethink them all. I think simplify, organize and declutter will be the motto here also.
9. My cat likes to sit on my monitor while I blog and she puts her paw down over the screen when she wants attention. Actually, she’s not particular, I don’t have to be blogging for her to do this. She’s just as happy interrupting my reading of random wikipedia articles.
10. Forcing oneself to be profound when writing a blog post doesn’t usually result in a very high quality post.

Structures #15

The above piece was included in my very first post. It’s the one and only Structures piece that has hand sewn surface stitching. The piece sold during the opening night at Quilt National 2005 from the gift shop to the collector that purchased my piece in the show, Structures #31. He had me sign the back of both of them in sharpie marker. Kind of freaked me out.

Check out this detail image of the stitching. I think it turned out totally cool.

 
Tomorrow is the artist reception for my show, Markings: Repetition and Pattern. I’m super excited! I can’t wait to see all the work hanging in the gallery.

Markings #5    ©2007    66"x 57"

No Pressure

My show, Markings: Repetition and Pattern, opened today. The work is done. My artist talk is outlined and ready to go for saturday at the artist reception. I’ve got a detailed list of things to bring (cookies, updated portfolio, camera, etc). The deadline for shipping work for my next show, Fencing in or Keeping Out, isn’t for another month. My kids are still in Europe. Taxes are done. Bills are caught up. Plants are watered. Cats are fed. Laundry is done.

I’m in a very rare state of my life. I don’t feel the pressure of any looming deadlines I need to rush to complete.

Wow. What an amazing feeling.

Used to be this situation would rarely last long. Some deadline will sneak up on me and I’d start feeling I have to do things in high gear again.

My intent is to not let that happen that way anymore. I don’t want to live my life feeling I’m just putting out one fire after another.

Spinning My Wheels

My normal M.O. would be to make an excuse to myself that I needed to do nothing all week, for several weeks. I delivered the work for my show monday, obviously I deserve a month off. Then I’d waste the entire time online doing nothing. Then I’d feel drained, annoyed at myself and back under pressure to crank out the work at the last minute.

The result being only the immediate deadlines are met and things like decluttering my house, which is a huge job and needs to be done in little chunks, never ever gets finished because it never gets started because I’m either doing nothing at all or running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

I know I have a reputation for being super organized and good at managing my time but the reality is I work really fast and can pull off amazing things when under pressure. But only the big splashy things get done. The other stuff gets ignored and I don’t talk about it although it frustrates me a lot.

No more!

A Better Way

My plan is to keep track of upcoming commitments for the next 6 months and each week pick a few items that I need to focus on that week so my goals will be met in an effortless manner.

This week my priorities are

• Preparation for my artist reception on saturday
• Decluttering of my house
• Making steady progress for the work for the show in April

So tonight I cleaned out 1/2 of my linen closet, wrote the outline for my artist talk and made a shopping list and I spent a hour in my studio.

This doesn’t mean I won’t take time out to relax. I think it probably means I’ll have more time for slowing down and enjoying a break.

I’ll let you know how it goes.
 

Markings #5

I said in my last post that there were 2 pieces that didn’t make it into the show up in Boulder. This is the other piece. I really love this piece but it was too big. I had 2 pieces that were very dark and the other one fit into the space better. So this one came home to keep me company instead.

Markings #13    ©2007    30"x 40"

Delivered

A few weeks back I said I wasn’t going to make any new work for my upcoming show, Markings: Repetition and Pattern, as I had enough. Then I remembered that not all the walls in the gallery are really 7 feet high because of the cool ceiling, which you can see in the photos from my show in 2006. Oops!

So I did some juggling of my existing work and realized I needed 2 additional pieces for things to fit correctly and look the way I wanted.

I put the stitching on the binding of the last piece at 9am this morning. Today at lunch I delivered 15 pieces to Boulder for the show. Yay! They started hanging it before I left and I’m super excited. Can’t wait to see all of them up on the wall on Saturday.

The Series

I’ve now completed 19 pieces in the Markings series. Fifteen pieces will be in this show. Markings #3 is currently in Materials Hard and Soft and Markings #6 is headed to Artist and Quiltmaker in Ohio later this year.

That leaves 2 pieces without a show. Markings #13 is one of those pieces. The surface stitching of this piece is different than my normal "echo the lines" plan. It definitely stands out when you see it in person with all the red, orange and purple stitching over the blues and greens. Very cool effect. I have no doubt someday this piece will find a happy home, just not today.

Much Deserved Break

After work I stopped by redbox and grabbed a movie to watch, The Jane Austen Book Club, and picked up an order from my favorite local Thai place.

Wonderful evening with tom kha (coconut milk soup with lots of lemon grass and other spices) and firecrackers (deep fried shrimp with the most amazing spicy tangy sauce). These folks are brilliant. Finished it off with See’s Candy.

Yum.

Now off to bed at 8:30pm.

Tomorrow I’ll go down to the studio and take a look at all the bare white walls and think about what’s next.