Lisa Call

To celebrate the new year I want to first honor my accomplishments for 2009. Most of these are art related but not all of them as life and art are not possible to separate.

1. I choose Expansion and Integrity as my words for the year and found it impacted much more than my art.
2. I completed construction on my beautiful new 450 sq ft studio (not to mention the rest of major home renovation project). If you are in town contact me for a studio visit.
3. I spent a month in South Africa on an incredible, fabulous vacation.
4. I moved my mother to Denver so she could live near me.
5. I spent 388 hours in my studio making art (that an average of around 7.5 hours a week for the year.)
6. I worked in my studio 165 days in 2009, a huge number of days given the year I’ve had with other commitments.
7. I created 35 small textile paintings in my new Dream series, inspired by my trip to South Africa.
8. I created 12 new textiles paintings in the Lines series – these small works are mounted on painted stretched canvas.
9. I made the first 3 textile paintings in a new series – Ascending , I’ll explore this series in more detail in 2010.
10. I created 9 new ACEOs.
11. I designed 1 new textile paintings in the Markings series (it still needs to be quilted.)
12. I created 5 new textile paintings in the Structures series and design 2 additional compositions.
13. I added 1 new artwork in my Home series, as a gift for my mom.
14. Total I created 66 new textile paintings in 09. Most are smaller works but the Structures and Markings pieces are about 7′ square.
15. I spent an unknown number of hours marketing my art but it was a lot. I didn’t track the numbers this year as I had other priorities.
16. I sent 4 studio newsletters in 2009.
17. I set an intention to write a monthly newsletter and revamped my format to facilitate this goal. I’ll pursue this further in 2010.
18. I ended the year with 584 newsletter subscribers, adding 153 new subscribers in 2009 (you can join here).
19. I wrote 132 blog posts.
20. My blog exceeded 100,000 page views 3 of the 12 months in 2009 and traffic continues to grow even though this was the least number of blog posts I’ve written in a single years since I started blogging 5 years ago. Thanks to all of you for your support!
21. I continued to build a strong community on twitter.
22. I wrote 4180 tweets.
23. I ended the year with over 2500+ followers on twitter.
24. I became more active on facebook by creating a fan page for my artwork.
25. I sold 22 of the 35 textile paintings in the Dream series.
26. 15 of the Dream series were presold before I left for Africa to collectors that gave me great confidence in my artwork.
27. I sold Structures #39, which was featured in the 2008 Artful Home holiday catalog.
28. I sold 10 ACEOs.
29. I sold 22 additional textile paintings (mostly smaller work or older work).
30. Total of 55 textile paintings sold in 2009
31. I decided to sell my handdyed fabric for the first time ever.
32. I listed 25 yards of Handdyed fabric for sale and dyed an addition 21 yards for sale (that will be listed later this month).
33. I sold 14 yards of my handdyed fabaric.
34. I sold enough PFD fabric to others to keep my account open with Kaufman for the second year in a row (details here).
35. Structures #78 was juried into the SDA show in Kansas City in 2009.
36. Markings #22 was juried into Form Not Function for 2010.
37. I survived my rejection from Art Quilt Elements.
38. I did yoga every morning for a month with the help of my facebook friends’ encouragement.
39. I cut sugar out of my diet for a month, it made a huge difference in my sleep.
40. I wrote in my journal through out the year.
41. I spend a lot of time with my sister this year during the 3 months we were moving my mom and I enjoyed it tremendously.
42. I was able to visit with other family members this year (my brother, my step mom, my aunts and uncle, my nephews and brother in law, etc). I’m grateful for all time I get to spend with my family.
43. I visited the Denver Art Museum numerous time through the year and love how much closer it is now that I live in Denver.
44. I attended numerous artist lectures at the the art museum as part of the Logan lecture series.
45. I enjoyed several wonderful meals and outings with my artist friends.
46. I attended First Friday and local galleries several times through out the year.
47. I bought an amazing monitor for my art business to process my online images.
48. I took private photography/photoshop lessons to improve my skills in those areas.
49. The quality of my online images are greatly improved as a result of the above 2 items.
50. I participated in Christine Kane’s Platinum coaching circle for 1/2 of 2009 to move my art career and life forward.
51. I had 4 or 5 massages.
52. I had acupuncture (which is magical) 4 times.
53. I took a short but wonderful family vacation in New Mexicoin July where we ate a lot of green chile.
54. Participated in small art showcase and Fine Art Department again this year.
55. Received innumerable wonderful, supportive and informative comments on my blog, on facebook and twitter.
56. Maintained a daily photo journal of the progress of my new home and studio construction throughout the entire project.
57. I selected over 20 colors for the walls in my new home and now 8 months later I still love every single one of them.
58. Donated and gifted 10% of my gross art income (15% of the South African Impressions artwork).
59. Worked a fulltime job as a software engineer.
60. Moved into a project management role at the day time job
61. Thoroughly enjoyed being a mom to my 13 and 17 year old kids, as I do every year.
62. Purchased dozens of beautiful new works of original art by artists I admire, including some amazing arts and crafts from South Africa.
63. Met a man who’s company I very much enjoy and am exploring a relationship with him.
64. Started a new project called Make Big Art, to empower, educate and encourage artists.
65. Created a website for makebigart.
66. Started a blog for makebigart.
67. Wrote 9 long blog posts for makebigart.
68. Started a facebook fan page for makebigart.
69. Began a photo journal of my trip to south africa.
70. Loved living in my house during construction (now that is over I wonder how I did that but it was great fun at the time.)
71. Remained friends with my builder after the completion of my construction project.
72. Pampered myself with an expensive hotel room the 1 night I couldn’t be in my house during construction.
73. Gave a lecture, Social Media: Marketing Miracle or Waste of Time, at the Create Denver Expo.
74. Helped Alyson Stanfield with her workshop, A No-Excuses Art-Marketing Seminar, in Estes Park.
75. Had a wonderful time with Alyson and Cynthia in Estes Park.
76. Gave away Structures #83 to one of newsletter subscribers.
77. Revamped my prices and blogged about my reasons (one of my most popular blog posts to date). They used to be way too low.
78. After changing my prices, I revisited my decision and tweaked it a bit.
79. Returned to setting very specific goals and tracking my studio time after trying to wing it for a while.
80. Wrote a series of blog posts about building a studio, including an extensive look at studio lighting and electrical needs.
81. Wrote an entry about music in the studio for Vinyl Art’s contest: Storied Past contest.
82. Was published in Quilting Art: Inspiration, Ideas & Innovative Works from 20 Contemporary Quilters by Spike Gillespie. This is a fabulous book and more, much more, than I anticipated. I highly recommend the book.
83. My ACEOs (art cards) were published in the October 2009 Artist Magazine along with a few quotes. I was so busy during that time I never blogged about this but will eventually.
84. Completed Structures #100 – a huge milestone that I celebrated in my July studio newsletter (and with much dancing in the studio).
85. I was a featured artist on crafthaus in September.
86. I kept a sketch book while in South Africa filled with wonderful memories of my trip.
87. I saw zebras and giraffes and other very cool animals in Africa.
88. Went on an amazing hike in the Drakensburg (the mountains in South Africa).
89. I fell in love with South Africa and am looking forward to returning.
90. Helped my son select college to apply for as he’s leaving the next year.
91. I came close to making a profit on my artwork in 2009.
92. Created a squidoo lens with reasons why people buy art.
93. Created a squidoo lens for MakeBigArt.
94. Maintained my squidoo lens on Contemporary Art Quilts.
95. Worked with accountability partners most of the year to keep myself on track.
96. Gave away more of my belongings after I settled into the new house. Freeing up more energy for positive things.
97. Bought myself the worlds most comfortable bed as my thank you gift to myself for surviving the home remodel, of which no amount of money would have been too much. It’s luxury.
98. Ate much ice cream.
99. Laughed as much as possible.
100. I promised my kids I would get them a kitten. I haven’t fulfilled this promise but I will soon as life has settled down finally.

Creating this list is not an easy task. Reaching the magic number of 100 requires a lot of looking back. The goal is to look back and enjoy my accomplishments.

And to realized I did a lot this year. Because I spent so little time in my studio (only 7 1/2 hours a week instead of normal goal of 20 hours a week) I get discouraged. But building a studio, traveling to south africa, moving my mom to town and starting a romantic relationship – these things all take a lot of time and energy and they are all valuable and I no regrets.

It’s good to look back and be grateful, of which I am very much.

Tomorrow it’s time to look forward to 2010 and all I plan to accomplish and the word I will use to guide me.