Lisa Call

This year I selected the words Expansion and Integrity as my words of the year (in lieu of a resolution or setting specific goals for the year).

Some fabulous things did happen for me with my art career in 2009, but most of the expansion in my life was on a personal level. A home remodel project and the addition of a gorgeous new studio, a month in Africa and moving my mom to Colorado so she could live near me. Huge expanding changes and all of it wonderful.

When I set my intention last January I mainly had my art career in mind but clearly life had other plans for my expansion. Tomorrow I’ll post a list of my 100 accomplishments for 2009 and it will be clear my art career wasn’t neglected either. The completion of the South African Impressions Art Project was very exciting.

So here’s to 2009 – it wasn’t what I expected but it was still fabulous and the growth that I experienced I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Looking forward to 2010 – I’ve selected my word for the year and another one for the decade and I’ll post those on Jan 1.

Design Wall in my Studio

What Are They

I often mention the design walls in my studio and realize that few people, other than textile artists, know what they might be.

A painter uses and easel or sometimes hangs canvases on the wall so they can work on their artwork on a vertical surface. It’s much easier to see the painting and step back from it when painting this way vs. laying the work on a table or the floor.

As I don’t work on a canvas but instead cut out chunks of fabric and move them around to design my compositions so an easel doesn’t really work for me.

And laying the chunks of fabric on the floor or table doesn’t work for a few reasons. It’s hard to step back and get an overall view of what I’m working on and my cats are famous for rearranging any fabric they find on the floor. Running across the room at full speed and plowing into it is a favorite sporting event for them.

So I need a large vertical surface in which to work. Enter the design wall.

There are several variation on this idea and I’ve found that what works best for me is to take 4′x8′ sheets of insulating styrofoam and cover them in flannel. The flannel acts as a magnet and small pieces of fabric cling to it without pinning, making it an ideal work surface as I can move bits around with no hassle.

For larger pieces the insulation is the perfect pinning material for me. It’s very easy to get the pins in and dense enough to hold up large work.

I have ~48 linear feet of design wall in my new studio and most of it is in use all of the time.

How I Build Them

I start with 4′x8′ sheets of white styrofoam insulation (I think they call this stuff Block-molded Expanded Polystyrene – nice huh!)

The brand name of this stuff is insulfoam. I get it from home depot here in the Colorado and I use the 1″ thick sheets. I think it is not available in all parts of the country so you might have to hunt around – or contact them through the website above to see where you can get some.

This ‘how-to’ should answer all the questions I’ve been asked about how I build my design walls. If you have further questions please leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them there.

1) Cut the foam to fit the wall. I cut around windows and electrical plugs, etc using a box cutter and my acrylic rulers to get a straight edge. Anything that gets in the way or needs to be exposed. I do this in parts as it takes several sections to build a wall (well – if your wall is larger than 4′x8′).

This small piece that fits around my built in table and the window sill:

2) Layout all the pieces on the floor and glue them together. You can’t see it well in this photo but in a later one it’ll be clearer. I take sections of poster board and put glue on them and then use short straight pins to hold the poster board in place.

The main purpose of this is to hold the design wall together enough to get it in place.

These 2 sections of foam are ready to be glued together – I put this photo in so you could see the back side of styrofoam. One side is white – the other all this blue writing. Definitely put the blue writing to the back!

3) After the wall is assembled and the glue is dry set it out of the way. Note the hole is for the electrical outlet and this design wall is upside down from how it will be installed (my outlets are really near the floor like everyone else’s)

4) Sew together a bunch of flannel so it is about 10″ bigger than the foam wall. I buy cheap white flannel from joann fabrics when they have it 1/2 off as it takes yards and yards of this stuff. I bought over 100 yards of flannel to do my new studio.

I press the seams open.

5) Lay the fabric out on the floor, right side down, and pull it taut. You can pin it in place if need be.

6) Lay the wall on top of the flannel, right side down.

7) Pull the flannel to the back of the wall in pin in place. You can see the bits of poster board I use to hold it all together in this photo also.

Pinning around the cutouts isn’t the easiest but just muck it around as best you can. I add some bits to the electrical cutouts to cover the edge of the styrofoam.

8) This is a wall covered in flannel ready to be screwed on the wall. I don’t cover my baseboards so the wall has to be lifted up over them. (This isn’t the same wall as in the other photos – I seemed to have lost focus and not taken final photos of it).

9) The design wall attached to the wall. I use drywall screws – I think 2″ long ones. I put screws in the corners and where it seems like I need one. If the boards are straight you don’t need very many.

Having help to put these in place is very handy but not necessary – I installed all of my walls with no help, including my largest wall that is 12′ x 11′.

A Blank Canvas

Now that the studio is finished I got to spend today creating art. Although before I could begin I had much preparation to do.

The art I’m going to be creating over the next 7 weeks is for a solo show in Boulder that opens in mid February. I’ve shown in this space twice before so I know it well and know exactly the work I will make for the exhibit.

Usually when I create the artwork tells me what size it needs to be. This is a lovely feature of not working with a canvas. But it can also be a liability when I am facing a deadline as I like to work BIG and I don’t have time to complete a lot of huge quilts.

Being aware that 7 weeks isn’t much time to create an entire exhibits worth of art, this time around I’ve prederminded the sizes I will make so they fit the gallery and my time budget.

Since I have huge white walls the first step in preparation is to mark off the sizes I am working with. My plan is 9 larger pieces, the first 5 fit on my design walls and are marked off below.

[They might be a bit hard to see and if so - apologies for the big white photos. But in each of these there is some very light colored yarn marking off the spaces to fill.]

The largest – 3′x8′ (this is on the design wall I just put up – woohoo!):

Two 4′x4′ square:

Two 3′x3′ square:

Once these 5 are completed I’ll design the remaining four 3′x4′ pieces.

Equipment Prep

Next up I needed to get the sewing machine ready. I wound a bunch of bobbins (the thread that goes in the bottom of the sewing machine).

And cleaned and oiled the bobbin case and put in a new needle. Now it’s all ready to go.

Home #10

And here is the start – Home #10 will be the 3′x8′ piece. This is likely all you will see of it before my show opens so the work is all brand new. Or maybe I’ll post a few in progress photos. We’ll see…

It’s yellow, purple and brown and turning out way cool (it’s much further along now). I’m most pleased.

The Plan

I have about 260ish hours of studio time needed to complete the work for the show (more show details later). I have 7 weeks in which to do this. So, well, I’m going to be busy over the next few weeks as I think I’ve got to continue on with the day job also.

I’ll post updates 2-3 times a week so stay tuned. And coming up soon will be my year in review and my work fro 2010 and the coming decade. I love writing those posts.

And while I’ve said my studio is complete I still need to fix this one small detail. The builder had to redo some texture – back in April or May and the wall has looked like this ever since. I need to hunt through my 20 paint colors and get this fixed cause I’m really tired of looking at it this way! Maybe I’ll go do that right now…

On a Roll

Yesterday I completed the South African Impressions project by wrapping up some loss ends and posting the final photos.

Today I finally finished putting up the design walls in my new studio. I did a huge home remodel/addition last year and the house and new studio were completed at the beginning of April. More details on building a studio are here, and all my construction photos are here.

I got all but 16 feet of design wall up and then stalled on the project. Between show deadlines, travels to Europe and family issues there never seemed to be time to tackle this last bit.

Which means I’ve been using my studio with this pile of styrofoam sitting in the corner the last 8 months and it’s been really bugging me:

 
to add to the unfinished energy-draining look this ladder has sat in the corner for 8 months:

Work

Determined not to start the new year with this mess still in my studio today was the day for putting up the remaining walls. The day started off on the wrong foot and after 5 hours of being awake I finally made it up the studio. Serious avoidance going on I believe.

The first wall went up quickly as most of the work was done on it and it was small – just 4′ by 11′.

The second wall was not as cooperative. Big mental block – how as I going to put a 12′ x 11′ wall up by myself and did I have room on the floor and how was I going to cut that angle to match the ceiling and on and on.

With many (as in hours) of breaks on facebook I made it through the project and the answer to all the questions was “it’ll all work out”.

First step was to cut the styrofoam to fit the space (holes for outlets and the angle at the top) and to assemble three 8′ x 4′ sheets so it was 1 big wall (I do this with pins, glue and poster board – I’ll post photos tomorrow of details).

Here’s the wall all pieced together – and look at that – it fits perfectly. I love it when life is easy (if you click to see the larger picture you can see the seams between the pieces of styrofoam):

Next up is covering the thing in flannel (because fabric sticks to flannel without pins – static is very handy). This is a major project sewing together 44 yards of flannel into a big sheet. Again – detail photos tomorrow.

The Results

Once covered in flannel the styrofoam is screwed to wall and wa-la – design wall. Here it is in all it’s glory – 12 feet long and over 11′ high at the peak (in the corner is my last unfinished project in the studio before I start work for my solo show – hand dyed fabric for sale – I need to photograph it and get it listed – it’s been waiting 6 months):

Here’s the other design wall I put up today. This corner is my storage corner for work in progress. The other 3 big walls are working walls – so I can 3 huge textile paintings going or up to 6 or 7 smaller in the works at the same time.

The quilts in these storage walls are the larger pieces from the South African Impressions Project. They are ready to be quilted. Also some labels and bindings and other misc hanging out:

I did an additional 2 hours of cleaning in the studio and set up this table where I had a pile of stuff no longer needed. Now my kids can bring their lap tops up the studio and do their homework with me instead of hanging in their rooms (I’m sure they are just thrilled with that idea):

And since I was showing everything else here is the design wall I use most often as it is closest to my cutting table.

One thing I wasn’t sure about is what it would look like above the windows with the design walls on either side of them. Looks okay and it’s a great place to hang art and misc.

Above the furthest window are some toys I bought in South Africa. Love the wood.

And so now, 8 months later I can dance in the studio again. The energy is quite different now that it is done. Here’s to completion!
 

Dream #13
©2009 Lisa Call
6″ x 6″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$275 $170 + shipping
Purchase Here

Project Completed

I’m very happy to announce that the South African Impressions project is completed. I love making this artwork and now I’m enjoying sharing it and very much appreciate everyone positive comments about the series.

You can see all 35 pieces of the artwork on this page: South African Impressions.

Everyone that prepurchased artwork has selected their their piece (except Karin – I seem to be unable to get ahold of you – please email me if you see this) and I’m in the process of shipping out the last pieces.

The remaining work (of which there are some of my favorite pieces in this group, like the Dream #13 above) is now available for purchase.

I’ve decided to keep them at their pre-purchase price until January 2nd so if you are interested in owning one of textile paintings in the Dream series now is an excellent time to purchase one.

The remaining 16 textile paintings:

Six Inches Square – Mounted on Stretched Canvas

Dream #2
©2009 Lisa Call
6″ x 6″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$275 $170 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #24
©2009 Lisa Call
6″ x 6″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$275 $170 + shipping
Purchase Here

Four Inches Square – Mounted on Stretched Canvas

Dream #3
©2009 Lisa Call
4″ x 4″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$125 $78 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #5
©2009 Lisa Call
4″ x 4″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$125 $78 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #15
©2009 Lisa Call
4″ x 4″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$125 $78 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #16
©2009 Lisa Call
4″ x 4″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$125 $78 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #26
©2009 Lisa Call
4″ x 4″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
SOLD

Three Inches Square – Mounted on Stretched Canvas

Dream #7
©2009 Lisa Call
3″ x 3″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$75 $46 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #18
©2009 Lisa Call
3″ x 3″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$75 $46 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #28
©2009 Lisa Call
3″ x 3″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$75 $46 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #30
©2009 Lisa Call
3″ x 3″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$75 $46 + shipping
Purchase Here

ACEOS (Art Cards)

Dream #9
©2009 Lisa Call
3.5″ x 2.5″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$40 $28 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #10
©2009 Lisa Call
3.5″ x 2.5″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$40 $28 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #20
©2009 Lisa Call
3.5″ x 2.5″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$40 $28 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #22
©2009 Lisa Call
3.5″ x 2.5″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$40 $28 + shipping
Purchase Here

Dream #1 – Dream #35
©2009 Lisa Call
Textile Paintings (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)

Done!

This morning I finished uploading the images for the South African Impressions project and created a webpage to display them: South African Impressions.

Feels GREAT to have accomplished this task and now comes a very fun part of the project – contacting the folks that pre-purchased some of the artwork so they can select the textile painting they’d like to own. I’m contacting folks in the order they purchased the art so if you bought a piece of art and haven’t heard from me yet, you will soon, so start thinking about which piece you’d like.

If you didn’t prepurchase one and now would like one there will be several available and I’ll let everyone know when prices are posted and paypal buttons are up. I’ve had several inquires – so thank you!

What’s Next

I have a bit of work left attaching the textile paintings to the canvases and anticipate I’ll complete that task in the next day or so. Then there is the shipping and paperwork that goes along with the creation of new artwork.

I have a few hanging sleeves to get on artwork headed to shows soon that I’ll tackle this weekend also.

Then the big studio clean up. I’m going to get the last design walls up, finish up some painting and in 2009 I will declare my new studio COMPELTE (for new readers – I built a new studio this year and the last 6 months I’ve stalled on the last 1% of the work – time to remedy that).

By middle of next week I will have things dusted off and the studio in great shape it’ll be time to start the new artwork for my solo show – which opens in February. Seriously tight deadline but I’m excited to get started.

PS – I’ll also be sending out my studio newsletter saturday or sunday as promised. If you aren’t already on the list you can join here: Studio Newsletter Signup

Dream #23 and Dream #24 (in progress)
6″ x 6″ each
Textile Paintings in South African Impressions Project

The Art That Had to Be

This weekend as I was putting labels on the South African Impressions textile paintings I became overwhelmed with the need to make 2 additional pieces in the series. I had been trying to ignore this desire for a few days but as things were wrapping up it didn’t feel right without a 2 of the house themes in the 6″ size. I had these in my head and they had to be made.

Sometimes art is like that, it simply insists on being made and I can’t ignore it until I’ve created the image that keeps appearing in my head.

I have about an hour of stitching left on these 2 final art quilts and then I’m back to the plan of photographing and up on the website so they can find their new owners.

Newsletter

As I’ve worked in my studio on a fairly consistent basis this past week I have noticed a profound change in my attitude. Much more positive and forward thinking. Things are definitely shifting back to the positive place where I was sitting 6 months ago.

After I get this artwork published on my website and and start contacting the buyers, I’m going to write and email out my final studio newsletter for the year.

If you aren’t a subscriber but would like to be you can subscribe here .

South African Impressions – The Discount

About half of the new Dream textile paintings were prepurchased prior to my trip to South Africa.

I am still offering the discount on prepurchased South African Impressions textile paintings for about another week. The timing of my newsletter will determine the final end date of the sale.

This is a chance to own my artwork at lower prices and with payments spread out over 2 months if desired. For example: my ACEOs (2.5″ x 3.5″ art cards) normally sell for $40. The ACEOs in the Dream series are currently priced at $28. The 6″x6″ paintings (like the 2 above), normally priced at $275 are available for just 2 payments of $85 each.

Details here: South African Impressions Project

Textile Paintings in South African Impressions Project

A Name

I’ve been pondering what I will name the series of textile paintings that I’m doing for the South African Impressions project for months. I’ve wanted a name that captured my feelings about my month long vacation in South Africa but also captured my thoughts about the country.

The word that finally came to me as appropriate is Dream.

The overwhelming feeling that struck me about South Africa was the spirit of the country. Yes, there are some serious challenges ahead, but the what I mostly felt was hope and opportunity. It appeared to me the people in South Africa are dreaming about a future while also healing from a difficult past.

On a more personal level, the trip to South Africa was a dream come true to be able to travel for a month and enjoy the people, cultures and landscapes of South Africa. And it was more than that, when I think back on my trip I think about my future and the amazing things that I can plan and do next.

So each of the 30+ textile paintings in this series will be named Dream #__.

Progress

I’m making steady progress on the work and by the end of today I will have the stitching done. Tomorrow I’ll paint the stretched canvases and start mounting the little textiles to the canvas. Saturday will be photography and website update day.

Above is the last grouping of little quilts that I’m stitching. I love them all grouped together.

House Inspired Textile Paintings in South African Impressions Project

Houses

This weekend I finalized the last design for my South African Impressions textile paintings: Houses. Fits right in with my Home Series.

I loved the houses in South Africa (some photos here). The colors, the lines and shapes. They were so simple and powerful and beautiful.

I’ve been pondering for a few months how to represent this simple elegance in my textile art. After much doodling and sketching I decided to go with a very simple design. Above are the first 2 art cards in the grouping.

I’ve got another dozen that are just about done, the stitching on these is taking a bit longer than anticipate with the little doors and windows. And its definitely worth the effort – I’m loving how these are turning out.

Back in the Saddle

My post on MakeBigArt on saturday could easily have been appropriate for this blog also as it’s a fairly personal look at the last 4-5 months where I’ve done very little studio work and my thoughts about getting back to work. It’s all about mindsets – and looking for a positive mindset to get back on track.

You can read that post here: Success is Getting Back in the Saddle

Current Progress: Textile Paintings in the South African Impressions Project

Progress!

I’ve now completed nearly 20 of the small textile paintings for my South African Inspiration Project. Only the house inspired pieces are remaining and I am going to complete those this weekend.

It’s taken so much longer than I would have liked and when I reflect back upon why I don’t like all the answers I come up with. But I accept that what was going on in my life was necessary, not just the disruption with moving my mom to live in Denver, but other things happening in my life.

Refocus

My mom is now settled and I’m now ready to recommit to my studio schedule – 20 hours a week or more (and very likely much more as my solo show is fast approaching in February).

I’m also going to refocus on my blog and studio newsletter as I have missed the communication and connection with everyone.

To that end, after writing my first blog post on makebigart when I finish this post, I am going to turn my computer off for the weekend. No twitter or facebook or email or watching hulu or wasting time just staring at the screen doing nothing of significance.

Time to start doing again.